Geocentric model and planets were holes in invisible wheels surrounding Earth; through the holes, humans could see concealed fire. About the same time, Pythagoras thought that the Earth was a sphere (in accordance with observations of eclipses), but not at the center; they believed that it was in motion around an unseen fire. Later these views were combined, so most educated Greeks from the 4th century BC on thought that the Earth was a sphere at the center of the universe. In the 4th century BC, two influential Greek philosophers, Plato and his student Aristotle, wrote works based on the geocentric model.
Mathematical physics Having introduced experimentation, Galileo then refuted geocentric cosmology by refuting Aristotelian physics itself. Galilei's 1638 book "Discourse on Two New Sciences" established the law of equal free fall as well as the principles of inertial motion, founding the central concepts of what would become today's classical mechanics. By the Galilean law of inertia as well as the principle of Galilean invariance, also called Galilean relativity, for any object experiencing inertia, there is empirical justification for knowing only that it is at "relative" rest or "relative" motion—rest or motion with respect to another object. René Descartes adopted Galilean principles and developed