Saturday, May 16, 2015

Galileo Galilei Square Cube Law




Galileo Galilei Square Cube Law


Science is written in this great book: the Universe, which stands continually open to our gaze.
-Galileo


OK, I had to give my Geiger counter a break to recharge.

What we have here in my notebook is an awesome little thing Galileo wrote about: take a cube and dice it into smaller cubes: the total volume stays the same, but the surface area keeps growing the more cubes you dice. 

The volume of each little cube is 1/8 the big cube but is surface area is larger at 1/4 the big cube. Volume drops faster than surface area. Weight drops faster than surface area. Weight drops faster than aerodynamic drag (wind resistance). Thus dust floats.

It’s called Galileo’s “Square-Cube Law” and is found in his work “Two New Sciences”. I got my copy from a free book-bin at my local library. I guess they couldn’t find any takers for the .25cents they wanted at their booksale.








A1 = original surface area and A2 = new surface area.

V1 = original volume and V2 = new volume.

L1 = original length and L2 = new length.





Ugh, it was a short post but it got all mathy at the end. Meow.