At the very outset, of course, it is not true that water has no resistance to penetration; it is true, however, in the sense in which Galileo uses the term--that is to say, the resistance of the water to penetration is not the determining factor ordinarily in deciding whether a body sinks or floats.

Yet in the case of the flat body it is not altogether inappropriate to say that the water resists penetration and thus supports the body.

The modern physicist explains the phenomenon as due to surface-tension of the fluid.

Of course, Galileo's disquisition on the mixing of air with the floating body is utterly fanciful.

His experiments were beautifully exact; his theorizing from them was, in this instance, altogether fallacious.