Re: Galileo's law of falling bodies (was e: free fall data)

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>]

> > I do a nice demo of this with a string onto which have been tied
> > a number of hex nuts at intervals of one, three, five,... units
> > starting from its "lower end". The string is suspended vertically
> > from its other end with its lower end just touching the bottom of
> > an inverted cardboard box which acts as a sounding board. (I must
> > stand on a ladder to hold the string.) When I release the string
> > the nuts strike the box in a perceptibly constant rhythm. I also
> > have a string of nuts tied at constant intervals for comparison.
> > This demo is very cheap and easy to perform.
> >
> > Leigh
> I tried this procedure several times but I could not tell the
> difference in rhythm when the nuts were evenly spaced or
> when they were correctly spaced.  My ceiling is only 8 feet high.
> Is this a sufficient height for the demo?  When you released the
> string and nuts, how high was the release point from the floor?

I drop from about five meters, Herb. (I hadn't thought of it before,
but given your inspiring posting and Stillman Drake's speculation
about Galileo's use of his natural sense of rhythm, I may refer to
this demonstration in the future as "Galileo's nuts".)

Leigh