Galileo's hydrostatic balance (La bilancetta)
Balanza hidrostática de Galileo (La bilancetta)
- Date
- 1586 · confidence medium
- Place
- Florence, Tuscany, Italy
- Credited to
- Galileo Galilei
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A balance in which Galileo weighs an object in air and immersed in water to find its density, with a gold wire wound on the arm to read small differences. It is a quantitative method of determining densities and detecting alloys.
Galileo wrote 'La bilancetta' around 1586, before he became a professor; it circulated in manuscript and was published posthumously (1655). The method inherits from Archimedes and the Islamic tradition.
What it led to
- determination of specific gravities with the hydrostatic balance
- Galileo's method for detecting metal frauds