Ptolemy in the Almagest had argued that if the Earth rotated, then clouds and thrown objects would be left behind; and as we have seen, Buridan had argued against the Earth’s rotation by reasoning that if the Earth rotated from west to east, then an arrow shot straight upward would be left behind by the Earth’s rotation, contrary to the observation that the arrow seems to fall straight down to the same spot on the Earth’s surface from which it was shot vertically upward. Oresme replied that the Earth’s rotation carries the arrow with it, along with the archer and the air and everything else on
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