Physics Battle: Aristotle vs. Newton

Illustration: Rhett Allain. Aristotle vs. Newton with a pushing block. Aristotle image. Newton image.

Aristotle lived and died over 2,000 years ago. That’s so far in the past that it’s before they invented last names — so he’s just Aristotle (single name like Cher or Prince). Then 1700 years later we have Isaac Newton (you know he is more modern because of the two names).

Yet here we are — still talking about these two humans in our introductory physics courses. Why do we care? It’s because they…