Beyond Galileo: A translation of Giovanni Battista Riccioli's experiments regarding falling bodies and "air drag", as reported in his 1651 Almagestum Novum
arXiv:1205.4663
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".