Re: [Phys-L] To gal or not to Gal.

[Chuck Britton <cvbritton@mac.com>]

I believe that the two unequal but connected masses was the Gedanken Expt. that Galileo describes in his writing.
If heavier things fall faster, then cutting the string would make them both slow down.


On Sep 24, 2013, at 8:18 PM, Bernard Cleyet <bernard@cleyet.org> wrote:

> According to Wikipedia, G. G. did the Pisa tower xpmt.  Instead, as I thought, a "Gedanken". ***
>
> "The gal is named after Galileo Galilei, a physicist who made the first measurements of the Earth's gravity, and who dropped items out of the Tower of Pisa to see if weight had a bearing on the time taken for them to fall."
>
> Gal (unit) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal_(unit)
>
> What do you expts write?
>
>
> bc thinks he may want to correctly correct the Wiki.  and joyously awaits a free 60 micro-gal resolution sensor from the USGS.
>
> *** My modern phys instructor (UCSB -- 1957) said G.G. posed the question,  what happens when one cuts the rigid thread between two unequal masses while falling?  
>
> The talk discusses the non-SI, but not the experiment.  And I would add the Eötvös confirmation.  
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