FALLACY 



2132 



FALLING BODIES 



Of the 6,500 square miles in the Falkland 

 group, 3,000 are in East Falkland, which con- 

 tains the capital, Stanley; 2,300 square miles 

 are in West Falkland, and the remaining 2,200 

 are divided among a hundred smaller islands. 

 South Georgia contains about 1,000 square 



THE FALKLAND ISLANDS 

 miles; the South Shetlands, nearly 900, and the 

 South Orkneys, about 800. The Falklands were 

 discovered by the English Captain Davis in 

 1592, and have since been occupied by France, 

 Spain, England and the republic of Buenos 

 Aires. They have been an undisputed British 

 colony since 1833. 



FALLACY, fal'asi. When a father says, 

 "I succeeded in getting through life with only 

 an ordinary education, and therefore my chil- 

 dren don't need anything better," he is guilty 

 of a fallacy. This word comes from the Latin 

 verb meaning to deceive, and is the name given 

 in logic to a blunder in reasoning, whether 

 deliberate or unintentional, that leads to a 

 wrong conclusion. See LOGIC. 



FALLlRES, jalyair' , CLEMENT ARM AND 

 (1841- ), a French politician, statesman 

 and eighth president of the French Republic, 

 was born of peasant ancestry in Mezin in the 

 department of Lot-er-Garonne. He received 

 his education in Paris, studied law and soon 

 became conspicuous as a speaker and debater. 

 In 1868 he entered political life and in 1876 

 was elected as a Republican to the Chamber 

 of Deputies. He was appointed an under- 

 secretary in the Department of the Interior in 

 1880 and became Minister of the Interior in 

 1882, subsequently becoming Minister of Pub- 

 lic Instruction under Ferry. In 1890 he was 

 elected Senator from Lot-et-Garonne, and in 

 1899 became president of the senatorial body, 

 being elected eight successive times. The 

 Socialists and Radical Republicans elected him 

 as President of the Republic in 1906 to suc- 

 ceed Loubet, and he assumed office on Febru- 

 ary 18 of that year. 



Because of his democratic ideas he was 

 popular with the masses throughout his career 



and evinced a desire to give the laboring ele- 

 ment greater recognition. In 1913 M. Poin- 

 care succeeded him as President of the repub- 

 lic, and he retired to his estate at Loupillon 

 in Southern France. 



FALLING BODIES. From the time of 

 Aristotle to the end of the sixteenth century 

 it was believed that if two bodies of unequal 

 mass were dropped from the same height at 

 the same time, the heavier body would reach 

 the earth first. An Italian named Galileo, who 

 lived during the latter part of the sixteenth 

 and through the first half of the seventeenth 

 century, was the first man to disprove this 

 theory. Others had questioned and disputed 

 it, but Galileo decided to prove that Aristotle 

 was wrong. Accordingly, about the year 1590, 

 he went to the top of the famous leaning tower 

 of Pisa and dropped at the same instant a 

 small cannon ball and a large one. They 

 reached the ground at nearly the same in- 

 stant, so he came to the conclusion that it 

 was the resistance of the air that made for 

 difference in velocity and not the difference in 

 weight. The dispute was not settled finally 

 until after the invention of the air pump in 

 1660. Then it was shown that when a feather 

 and a coin were dropped simultaneously in 

 a long tube from which all the air had been 

 pumped, they fell side by side and reached 

 the bottom at the same instant. 



The conclusion was then established that 

 the force of gravity, which is the force that 

 makes bodies fall towards the earth, acts on 

 all bodies alike, regardless of their shape, size 

 or density. Since the attraction of the earth 

 is towards its center, all bodies move in a 

 direct line towards that point. This line is 

 exactly perpendicular to the surface of still 

 water. 



The first law of falling bodies states that, 

 under the influence of gravity alone, all bodies 

 fall with equal rapidity. Actually, because of 

 the resistance of the air, bodies fall with dif- 

 ferent degrees of rapidity. You can test this 

 resistance of the air for yourself by taking, for 

 instance, two sheets from a newspaper and 

 dropping one unfolded and one crushed into a 

 ball from a second- or third-story window. Since 

 both pieces of paper are of practically the 

 same weight, you have a perfect illustration of 

 the fact that it is difference of shape and not 

 of weight that causes the difference in velocity. 



There are three things to be considered in 

 studying the laws of falling bodies. One is 

 the distance the body falls the actual number 



