ABSTRACT
Paolo Bozzi’s studies of the phenomenology of motion using the pendulum and using the inclined planes are well known. This is one area of activity for which Bozzi has been relatively well known also outside Italy. Bozzi studied systematically the perception of natural motion, using the methods of Experimental Phenomenology, and made some fascinating discoveries. In “Phenomenological Analysis of Pendular Harmonic Motion” the pendulum is chosen as an ideal test of the idea that certain motions are perceived as natural or unnatural in a way that is not the same as what is physically possible. The presence of systematic mistakes in people beliefs about the world and in particular about motion, generated great interest and a series of important papers in the 1980s, for instance by Michael McCloskey and Dennis Proffitt. Some mistakes that people make originate from perception, but other may originate from models that people develop, as illustrated by studies with children and adults.
