Astronomical Images : Proof that infinite power cannot reside in a finite body

Aristotle

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This work comprises Aristotle's <i>Physics</i> and Thomas Aquinas's commentary edited by the Augustinian, Timoteo Maffei of Verona (d. 1470). Aristotle discussed the nature of motion in the latter books of <i>Physics</i>, often referring to figures to elucidate his points. These figures were not always illustrated, and there was no traditional stock of figures like the wind diagrams or concentric circles associated with the Aristotelian analysis of motion. This edition makes an effort to supply such figures. In <i>Physics</i>, book 8 chapter 10, Aristotle seeks to show that the Prime Mover is without parts or magnitude. This entails showing that an unlimited power cannot reside in a limited magnitude. The time bar A represents the time in which the unlimited force heats the objects or thrusts it to a certain distance, and A + B the time in which a given limited force would produce the same effect. If this given force is increased by equal increments successively, at some point the effect will have been produced by the limited power in time A, for by successive additions, it is possible to make the power exceed any given limit, and by corresponding subtractions make the time fall short of any given limit. Thus the limited power will take the same time as the unlimited in effecting the movement, which is impossible. (Aristotle, <i>Physics</i> VIII.10.266a27-266b6, trans. Wicksteed and Cornford.)</p>