Part 2/9:
Before Galileo, the prevailing Aristotelian view held that the natural world was imbued with qualities—colors, smells, and tastes—profoundly tied to the physical objects themselves. These sensory characteristics, however, could not be neatly articulated within the confines of quantitative mathematics. Ask how the “redness” of a tomato could fit into an equation, and you find yourself at an impasse.