Galileo and the Far-Future Antigrav Toy

Question

I was remembering a science fiction story mentioned on an online discussion forum; the context was a discussion about how fortunate it was that early pioneers had a relatively predictable mechanistic universe that followed seemingly easily quantifiable and verifiable laws. A story was brought up in which Galileo or a historical equivalent (may have been an otherworldly alien equivalent) comes face to face with a far-future 'toy' that seems to violate laws of motion principles (due to antigrav. or something similar); the story proceeds from there. I realize the story sounds thematically similar to L. Sprague de Camp's 'Aristotle and the Gun' but it's not that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Answer 1

I won't say for certain that it's a different book (may have been published under more than one title), but I remember this story as Newton and the Quasi Apple -- Stan Schmidt is the author. The plot synopsis here seems virtually identical to that in your question. I wonder if the discussion group might have misremembered the title?

Answer 2

Someone answered this for me on another discussion group! The story is Stanley Schmidt's "Lost Newton"!

From the SF Encylopedia:

[Schmidt's] first novel, Newton and the Quasi-Apple (September 1970 Analog as "Lost Newton"; exp 1975), is a Hard-SF exploration in Physics set on a primitive planet where Newton's principles are being independently discovered, raising questions as to what kinds of knowledge are helpful – and when.

An excerpt of a review from Goodreads for the novel:

The premise of the story is about a team of humans who monitor alien civilizations and make sure they are protected with little intervention. A particular society they are watching is on the brink of a ‘renaissance’ age; however, a second intelligent species is threatening to wipe them out. They intervene and cause all sorts of havoc for the society.

On the other side of the story, Terek is a young disciple in the temple of the alien society. After examining lost manuscripts, he has plotted out different mechanics of the universe (e.g., the path of the planet around the star) as well as stumbled on to numbers he attempts to turn into what we know as physics equations. Basically, he is the Newton of this alien society. Much like the human race, Terek is persecuted for his new ideas by the longstanding temple and labeled as a heretic - all in time for the town to get attacked by the barbaric race again.