Projectiles: Galileo is credited with being the first person to describe the shape of a projectile’s path as a
parabolic curve, which results from its tendency to move horizontally at a constant speed while also falling
with a constant acceleration. Galileo had heard of a recent discovery by Niccolo Tartaglia that gravity
starts acting the instant it loses contact with the thrower. In explaining horizontal motion, Galileo
described experiments in which he rolled a ball down one side of a U-shaped ramp and watched it roll up
to very nearly the same height on the other side of the U. As he lowered and extended the "down" side of
the U, he found that the ball traveled farther and farther horizontally. He reasoned that if the slope was
lowered all the way to the horizontal, and if he could make the ramp smooth enough to eliminate friction
completely, the ball would continue to move forever, without a constant force to keep it going. This idea
was very close to Newton’s first law of inertia, except that Galileo thought that the ball would follow the
curve of the Earth rather than go in a straight line forever.
Projectiles: Galileo is credited with being the first person to describe the shape of a projectile’s path as a
parabolic curve, which results from its tendency to move horizontally at a constant speed while also falling
with a constant acceleration. Galileo had heard of a recent discovery by Niccolo Tartaglia that gravity
starts acting the instant it loses contact with the thrower. In explaining horizontal motion, Galileo
described experiments in which he rolled a ball down one side of a U-shaped ramp and watched it roll up
to very nearly the same height on the other side of the U. As he lowered and extended the "down" side of
the U, he found that the ball traveled farther and farther horizontally. He reasoned that if the slope was
lowered all the way to the horizontal, and if he could make the ramp smooth enough to eliminate friction
completely, the ball would continue to move forever, without a constant force to keep it going. This idea
was very close to Newton’s first law of inertia, except that Galileo thought that the ball would follow the
curve of the Earth rather than go in a straight line forever.
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