Lucretius, writing in 50 BCE:

Whatever falls through water or thin air, the rate Of speed at which it falls must be related to its weight, Because the substance of water and the nature of thin air Do not resist all objects equally, but give way faster To heavier objects, overcome, while on the other hand Empty void cannot at any part or time withstand Any object, but it must continually heed Its nature and give way, so all things fall at equal speed, Even though of differing weights, through the still void.

• De Rerum Natura book 2 lines 230-239

I was literally just writing about him nailing survival of the fittest too.

Makes sense, why test it?

Excuse me, I have to get back to wiping my ass with the communal sponge-on-a-stick.

When air resistance is in the equation, weight can be a factor. But yes, it should’ve been checked way earlier, but it’s not surprising considering how he’s put on a pedestal.

Heavy objects, on average, are denser at human scales. Dense objects tend to have an aerodynamic profile compared to sheets of leaves or cloth or sand. They tend to get blown away in the wind. Anything that would bind or compact those lightweight things together like resin or water tends to weigh a sizable percentage of the compound. There is a correlation between heavy and fall speed. It took accurate scales and ~0 bar vacuums to prove it was the air doing it.

Try explaining how a helium balloon works without sounding like a wizard.

this idea seems rather tame when you compare it to a bunch of other batshit crazy ideas people were having in ancient greece, like: each time an eel smashes into a rock, a tiny piece of eel breaks off, and then that tiny piece of eel turns into an adult eel and thats how eels are born.