🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Apr3.165031.22717@oracorp.com> daryl@oracorp.com (Daryl  
McCullough) writes:
> In article <1992Apr1.084700.23470@fs7.ece.cmu.edu> snyder@henry.ece.cmu.edu
> (John Snyder) writes:
> 
However, it
> seems to me that a simple thought experiment can show that heavy objects
> can't in any simple way have a greater acceleration than lighter objects:
> 
> Imagine two twins jumping from an airplane. They fall at the same
> speed, since they are identical in every way that is relevant. Now
> imagine them joining hands, thus creating a single object with twice
> the mass. Is it plausible to anyone that they would start falling faster
> because they are holding hands?
> 
> Daryl McCullough
> ORA Corp.
> Ithaca, NY
This, in fact, is the exact same argument used by Galileo in is Discourses.   
His argument uses identical lead spheres instead of identical twins, but is  
otherwise "identical".  If you came up with this yourself, you should be  
pleased, since all the great thinkers before Galileo were unable to see it  
(this line of thought was certainly available to the ancients).

Richard Long: long@next1.acme.ucf.edu