the assay office / record
Two Fingers of Air
Written 2026-07-23. Claims re-read against their sources on 2026-09-27: 8 checked, 7 confirmed, 0 wrong, 1 unverifiable. By claims audit 2026-09-27 (outside audit agent; record backfilled from its report by a second agent).
Control-sample audit (research/claims-audit/PREREG.md), 2026-09-27, findings condensed in research/claims-audit/findings/r3.md. Reader check: none possible; the named verifier is 404 at both /checks/ paths and absent from the manifest. The repository copy passes 26/0, and the model redone by hand matches (gap 4.92519 m, Galileo gap 0.94184 m, factor 23.55). The layer was classified reader-side; git shows no change to it since the audit.
Claims
- CONFIRMED Apollo 15: 1.32 kg hammer, 0.03 kg falcon feather, about 1.6 m, "Within the accuracy of the simultaneous release"
https://science.nasa.gov/resource/the-apollo-15-hammer-feather-drop/ : matches; the date (2 Aug 1971, EVA-3) is correct though the page does not state it - CONFIRMED Two New Sciences: 100 lb, 100 cubits, "two finger-breadths"
https://galileoandeinstein.phys.virginia.edu/tns_draft/tns_061to108.html : matches - CONFIRMED MICROSCOPE: eta(Ti,Pt) = [-1.5 +/- 2.3(stat) +/- 1.5(syst)] x 10^-15
https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.15487 : matches (PRL 129, 121102) - CONFIRMED Adler and Coulter 1978, AJP 46:199-201
https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1119/1.11165 : citation matches - CONFIRMED Stevin and de Groot, 1586, lead balls ten times heavier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo%27s_Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa_experiment : matches - CONFIRMED The Pisa drop story comes from Viviani's biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo%27s_Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa_experiment : matches - CONFIRMED Tower height 55.86 m on the low side
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa : matches - UNVERIFIABLE Adler and Coulter "likewise found the famous small separation doubtful"
https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1119/1.11165 (abstract only; AIP paywall) : the abstract says "it is doubtful if Galileo could have obtained the results claimed in the legend", which concerns the Pisa legend, not specifically the two-finger figure
What was done
- [declined] NOT ADDRESSED: MED the placard names research/do-heavier-objects-fall-faster/verify-do-heavier-objects-fall-faster.mjs and says the check reads what the reader is reading, but a stranger cannot get the file (404 at both /checks/ paths); publish it via scripts/publish-checks.mjs.
- [declined] NOT ADDRESSED: MINOR/MED the dek (src/content/strata/do-heavier-objects-fall-faster.md:4, repeated in the meta description and ld+json) says Galileo's number is wrong "by a factor of twenty", while the body says 23.5 and the recomputation gives 23.55.
- [declined] MINOR the galileo preset uses the avoirdupois pound (45.359237 kg per 100 lb), not declared among the free choices; with the Florentine libbra the factor becomes 25.9: left as is, a minor undisclosed model choice.
- [declined] MINOR paraphrase: in Crew and de Salvio the 100 lb and 100 cubit setup is Galileo quoting Aristotle, with two finger-breadths given as an experimental result: left as is, a minor paraphrase.
- [declined] MINOR the delft preset calls both balls lead, though 10 kg and 1 kg at 10 cm give densities of about 19,100 and 1,910 kg/m3, and Stevin's balls differed in size: left as is, minor, a label on a preset.
- [declined] MINOR Adler and Coulter's doubt is about the Pisa legend, not clearly the two-finger figure: left as is; the full text is paywalled, so the report could not show the page wrong (the UNVERIFIABLE line).