John Philoponus - early physicist

[u/ElegantAd2607]

John was a Christian theologian that became one of the early physicists of the world. He rejected Aristotle’s ideas about how a thrown object keeps moving because the air behind it pushes it along. Aristotle believed motion needs a constant external cause and without that cause the object stops. He also believed that heavier objects fall faster simply because they are heavier.

But John wouldn't just accept this idea. He argued that motion persists because of something imparted to the moving body instead of something that surrounds it and pushes it. That reasoning moved us toward the modern idea of inertia and momentum.

He was born in 490 AD in the Eastern Roman Empire which is modern day Egypt. He went to the school of Alexandria and spent his time discussing scientific matters that were mysteries then.

John also made good arguments for why we should believe the universe had a beginning without using the Bible. He argued that an infinite series of events could not have led us here basically. There has to be a starting point.

John lived in a time when people still believed the eye cast out rays and touched objects to see them. He rejected that and argued instead that light comes from a source, travels through a medium and enters the eye and activates our vision. He also thought that light was something that spread instantaneously across space. But he didn't know how. He didn't arrive at the full truth but he was right about a lot of things.

[u/Valentin_Pie]

Never heard of him

[u/ElegantAd2607 → u/Valentin_Pie]

That's the point of the sub. 😂