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Aristotle was chatting about forces we later identified as gravity at about 300BC. He made a few mistakes regarding heavy objects falling faster etc, but that is by the by. Was he the first ever to talk about.... "gravity"? or were there others before him?

Rory Daulton
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user7488
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    gravity was not intended in the Newtonian sense. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Jun 01 '18 at 11:51
  • See Mechanics of pseudo-Aristotle. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Jun 01 '18 at 11:52
  • Still useful : M.Jammer, Concepts of Mass in Classical and Modern Physics and M.Jammer, Concepts of Force. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Jun 01 '18 at 12:06
  • I am clearly asking if there were ppl before Archimedis. I also used the word FORCE as a more generic understanding of [what we now call] gravity. I do not feel you have answered my question at all. Sorry. – user7488 Jun 01 '18 at 13:10
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    I am clearly asking if there were ppl before Archimedis. --- Surely thoughts on the nature of gravity independently arose many hundreds of thousands of times during the several hundred thousand year period before, say, 10000 B.C., such as when shaking tree limbs for berries and fruits and nuts, when throwing stones off of cliffs and ledges during fighting and hunting animals, developing better spears and testing them, looking at waterfalls, seeing rain and snow and hail fall, leaves falling from a tree before winter, etc. – Dave L Renfro Jun 01 '18 at 17:24
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    You are confusing Archimedes with Aristotle, and what he was talking about was not gravity. According to him, heavy bodies were moving towards their "natural place" at the center of the Earth. But yes, one could argue that Aristotle's was the first systematic theory (albeit only qualitative) of such phenomena, see Rovelli's Aristotle's Physics. – Conifold Jun 01 '18 at 23:14
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    thank you! I meant Aristotle, indeed. and thanks for answering my question so brilliantly! (i've now edited my post) – user7488 Jun 02 '18 at 02:05
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    Even animals know that they always fall down; unless you are more precise about what you do mean by "talking about gravity" this question seems awfully broad. – SJuan76 Jun 02 '18 at 10:55
  • @user7488 You did not edit the title. – José Carlos Santos Jun 03 '18 at 08:55
  • animals cannot talk. so they cannot talk about gravity. Whether or not they know that if they fall out of a tree and hit the ground rather than an instinctive, preternatural fear of danger is up for debate..... but not THIS debate. I think it leaves little room for confusion (once the name issue was sorted!) what I am on about. as Other have indicated/hinted I think I am on the side of the fence that says "Yes, he was the first (mostly)" – user7488 Jun 07 '18 at 08:32
  • Make your comment an answer, @Conifold. – Jason Stallard Sep 04 '18 at 12:04

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