Beyond Galileo: A translation of Giovanni Battista Riccioli's experiments regarding falling bodies and "air drag", as reported in his 1651 Almagestum Novum

Abstract

The Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli is commonly credited with performing the first precise experiments to determine the acceleration of a freely falling body, but he also went further, experimentally investigating what today would be called the effect of "air drag" on falling bodies. This paper consists of a translation of those experiments, with a brief analysis and commentary. Riccioli arrived at conclusions consistent with modern understanding of "air drag".