From Aristotle to Newton: the Principle of Inertia

This article traces the progression of the mechanical view of the world from the Aristotelian view point to the modern view point. Starting from Aristotle’s physics of falling bodies, through that of Leonardo da Vinci, we arrive that of Galileo. We discuss Galileo’s experiments on falling bodies at length, leading to the Principle of Inertia, and arrive at what we know today as Newton’s First Law of Motion.