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History of gravitational theory — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gravitational_theory
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-10-07T14:48:14.690Z
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History of gravitational theory — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gravitational_theory (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_f517f636dfd2 (Metraipolis archive dc_f517f636dfd2, sha256 169f329cc7c19a60a1bcab4f2b4c1811f44dd1b6ff8d594f9fc6498896a39cd8)

BibTeX

@misc{dcf517f636dfd2,
  title = {History of gravitational theory — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gravitational_theory},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_f517f636dfd2; sha256 169f329cc7c19a60a1bcab4f2b4c1811f44dd1b6ff8d594f9fc6498896a39cd8},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gravitational_theory. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

In physics, theories of gravitation postulate mechanisms of interaction governing the movements of bodies with mass. There have been numerous theories of gravitation since ancient times. The first extant sources discussing such theories are found in ancient Greek philosophy. This work was furthered through the Middle Ages by Indian, Islamic, and European scientists, before gaining great strides during the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution—culminating in the formulation of Newton's law of gravity. This was superseded by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity in the early 20th century. Greek philosopher Aristotle (fl. 4th century BC) found that objects immersed in a medium tend to fall at speeds proportional to their weight. Vitruvius (fl. 1st century BC) understood that objects fall based on their specific gravity. In the 6th century AD, Byzantine Alexandrian scholar John Philoponus modified the Aristotelian concept of gravity with the theory of impetus. In the 7th century, Indian astronomer Brahmagupta spoke of gravity as an attractive force. In the 14th century, European philosophers Jean Buridan and Albert of Saxony—who were influenced by Islamic scholars Ibn Sina and Abu'l-Barakat respectively—developed the theory of impetus and linked it to the acceleration and mass of objects. Albert also developed a law of proportion regarding the relationship between the speed of an object in free fall and the time elapsed. Italians of the 16th century found that objects in free fall tend to accelerate equally. In 1632, Galileo Galilei put forth the basic principle of relativity. The existence of the gravitational constant was explored by various researchers from the mid-17th century, helping Isaac Newton formulate his law of universal gravitation. Newton's classical mechanics were superseded in the early 20th century, when Einstein developed the special and general theories of relativity. An elemental force carrier of gravity is hypothesized in quantum gravity approaches such as string theory, in a potentially unified theory of everything.

Tema degli esploratori: fisica e astronomia (deposito sistematico; ricerca «general relativity»).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «History of gravitational theory» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gravitational_theory
Wikidata Q3137239 (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3137239
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gravitational_theory?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1377593306, consultata il 2026-10-07T14:21:21.956Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: c81cc95a523e582b03790416f0574ed4ac7f01e1cf51131291929dea8d0796a4