Relativity Calculator
"Galileo ... is the father of modern physics -- indeed of modern science" - Albert Einstein ( 1879 - 1955 )
Galileo Galilei ( Tuscan - Italian, 1564-1642 ) by Giusto Sustermans
From "Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences, Third Day: Naturally Accelerated Motion" ( Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche, intorno à due nuove scienze )*, 1638, by Galileo Galilei, his final work in physics covering his preceding 30 years, stated
" ... that in equal times bodies moving at different speeds cover distances in proportion to their speeds"
and
"A motion is said to be uniformly accelerated, when starting from rest, it acquires, during equal time-intervals, equal increments of speed"
wherein he wrote his famous "Law of Falling Bodies" equation:
.
As a result of the above equation, Galileo Galilei was the first to experimentally make the attempt to determine the value of of gn or simply g, the standard acceleration of earth's gravity [ latin: gravitas, gravis ( heavy ) ] effect at sea level, where the modern accepted value is 9.80665 m s-2. Please note that g is a vector quantity owning to the fact that it points between the centers of any two masses which effectuates the appearance gravity.
Nevertheless, Galileo's two major contributions to modern physics were the "Law of Falling Bodies" and the "Law of Inertia"**.
In the experiment, Galileo presumably used a water clock comprised of an "extremely accurate balance" to measure the amount of water collected and hence to measure durations of elapsed time during which balls of different weights [ and therefore different masses ] were rolled along an inclined ramp in order to study the effects of earth's gravity. Out of these experiments he derived his famous "Law of Falling Bodies".
*note: English source translation: Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio - Macmillan, 1914
**note: latin: in + ars = iners, meaning unskilled or artless whereas Kepler used the word for bodies at rest and Newton gave the word 'inertia' its modern mathematical meaning of bodies in undisturbed, straight - line motion unless subject to forces of acceleration.
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