Chapter  7: FREEDOM and DETERMINISM

FREEDOM?  or MYTH?

Did you answer that the book falls faster and hits the ground first because it is heavier?

Lots of people think this.  If you do you are in some pretty popular company.

But consider this:

 You lift up a large book, say a textbook, and raise it four feet above the ground.  You let it go and it hits the ground.  No problem there!  No surprises, just what you expected.  Now suppose you lift up the book again and raise it four feet above the ground.   In your other hand you hold a single sheet of paper, say typing or printer paper, 8 1/2 x 11 inches.  You crumple up the paper pretty well.  you squeeze it into a small ball. You hold the piece of paper four feet above the ground at the same time you are holding the book four feet above the ground.  You let them go at the same time and they both fall to the ground.  Do it again.  Raise them both and then let them go.  Do it again!  Raise them both and let them go.  Well, each time pretty much the same thing happens.

Proceed to the  next section.

Creative Commons License
Introduction to Philosophy by Philip A. Pecorino is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Return to:                 Table of Contents for the Online  Textbook