Galileo's Two New Sciences, pages 1 -4
INTERLOCUTORS: SALVIATI, SAGREDO AND SIMPLICIO
SALV. The constant activity which you Venetians display in your
famous arsenal suggests to the studious mind a large field for
investigation, especially that part of the work which involves
mechanics; for in this department all types of instruments and
machines are constantly being constructed by many artisans, among
whom there must be some who, partly by inherited experience and
partly by their own observations, have become highly expert and
clever in explanation.
SAGR. You are quite right. Indeed, I myself,
being curious by nature, frequently visit this place for the mere
pleasure of observing the work of those who, on account of their
superiority over other artisans, we call "first rank men."
Conference with them has often helped me in the investigation
of certain effects including not only those which are striking,
but also those which are recondite and almost incredible. At times
also I have been put to confusion and driven to despair of ever
explaining something for which I could not account, but which
my senses told me to be true. And notwithstanding the fact that
what the old man told us a little while ago is proverbial and
commonly accepted, yet it seemed to me altogether false, like
many another saying which is current among the ignorant; for I
think they introduce these expressions in order to give the appearance
of knowing something about matters which they do not understand.
SALV. You refer, perhaps, to that last
remark of his when we asked the reason why they employed
stocks, scaffolding and bracing of larger dimensions for launching
a big vessel than they do for a small one; and he answered that
they did this in order to avoid the danger of the ship parting
under its own heavy weight, a danger to which small boats
are not subject?
SAGR. Yes, that is what I mean; and I refer
especially to his last assertion which I have always regarded
as a false, though current, opinion; namely, that in speaking
of these and other similar machines one cannot argue from the
small to the large, because many devices which succeed on a small
scale do not work on a large scale. Now, since mechanics has its
foundation in geometry, where mere size cuts no figure, I do not
see that the properties of circles, triangles, cylinders, cones
and other solid figures will change with their size. If, therefore,
a large machine be constructed in such a way that its parts bear
to one another the same ratio as in a smaller one, and if the
smaller is sufficiently strong for the purpose for which it was
designed, I do not see why the larger also should not be able
to withstand any severe and destructive tests to which it may
be subjected.
SALV. The common opinion is here absolutely
wrong. Indeed, it is so far wrong that precisely the opposite
is true, namely, that many machines can be constructed even more
perfectly on a large scale than on a small; thus, for instance,
a clock which indicates and strikes the hour can be made more
accurate on a large scale than on a small. There are some intelligent
people who maintain this same opinion, but on more reasonable
grounds, when they cut loose from geometry and argue that the
better performance of the large machine is owing to the imperfections
and variations of the material. Here I trust you will not charge
me with arrogance if I say that imperfections in the material,
even those which are great enough to invalidate the clearest mathematical
proof, are not sufficient to explain the deviations observed between
machines in the concrete and in the abstract. Yet I shall say
it and will affirm that, even if the imperfections did not exist
and matter were absolutely perfect, unalterable and free from
all accidental variations, still the mere fact that it is matter
makes the larger machine, built of the same material and in the
same proportion as the smaller, correspond with exactness to the
smaller in every respect except that it will not be so strong
or so resistant against violent treatment; the larger the machine,
the greater its weakness. Since I assume matter to be unchangeable
and always the same, it is clear that we are no less able to treat
this constant and invariable property in a rigid manner than if
it belonged to simple and pure mathematics. Therefore, Sagredo,
you would do well to change the opinion which you, and perhaps
also many other students of mechanics, have entertained concerning
the ability of machines and structures to resist external disturbances,
thinking that when they are built of the same material and maintain
the same ratio between parts, they are able equally, or rather
proportionally, to resist or yield to such external disturbances
and blows. For we can demonstrate by geometry that the large machine
is not proportionately stronger than the small. Finally, we may
say that, for every machine and structure, whether artificial
or natural, there is set a necessary limit beyond which neither
art nor nature can pass; it is here understood, of course, that
the material is the same and the proportion preserved.
SAGR. My brain already reels. My mind, like
a cloud momentarily illuminated by a lightning-flash, is for an
instant filled with an unusual light, which now beckons to me
and which now suddenly mingles and obscures strange, crude ideas.
From what you have said it appears to me impossible to build two
similar structures of the same material, but of different sizes
and have them proportionately strong; and if this were so, it
would not be possible to find two single poles made of the same
wood which shall be alike in strength and resistance but unlike
in size.
SALV. So it is, Sagredo. And to make sure that we understand each other, I say that if we take a wooden rod of a certain length and size, fitted, say, into a wall at right angles, i. e., parallel to the horizon, it may be reduced to such a length that it will just support itself; so that if a hair's breadth be added to its length it will break under its own weight and will be the only rod of the kind in the world.* Thus if, for instance, its length be a hundred times its breadth, you will not be able to find another rod whose length is also a hundred times its breadth and which, like the former, is just able to sustain its own weight and no more: all the larger ones will break while all the shorter ones will be strong enough to support something more than their own weight. And this which I have said about the ability to support itself must be understood to apply also to other tests; so that if a piece of scantling will carry the weight of ten similar to itself, a beam having the same proportions will not be able to support ten similar beams.
Please observe, gentlemen, how facts which at first seem improbable
will, even on scant explanation, drop the cloak which has hidden
them and stand forth in naked and simple beauty. Who does not
know that a horse falling from a height of three or four cubits
will break his bones, while a dog falling from the same height
or a cat from a height of eight or ten cubits will suffer no injury?
Equally harmless would be the fall of a grasshopper from a tower
or the fall of an ant from the distance of the moon. Do not children
fall with impunity from heights which would cost their elders
a broken leg or perhaps a fractured skull? And just as smaller
animals are proportionately stronger and more robust than the
larger, so also smaller plants are able to stand up better than
larger. I am certain you both know that an oak two hundred cubits
high ,would not be able to sustain its own branches if they were
distributed as in a tree of ordinary size; and that nature cannot
produce a horse as large as twenty ordinary horses or a giant
ten times taller than an ordinary man unless by miracle (note
this phrase - Galileo is trying to cover himself) or by greatly
altering the proportions of his limbs and especially of his bones,
which would have to be considerably enlarged over the ordinary.
Likewise the current belief that, in the case of artificial machines
the very large and the very small are equally feasible and lasting
is a manifest error. Thus, for example, a small obelisk or column
or other solid figure can certainly be laid down or set up without
danger of breaking, while the large ones will go to pieces under
the slightest provocation, and that purely on account of their
own weight.
*The author here apparently means that the solution
is unique.