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

["Daniel L. MacIsaac" <Dan.MacIsaac@nau.edu>]

> > (Naturally Accelerated Motion, Theorem II Prop II Corol I, Third Day, 2 New
> > Sciences, G. Galilei)
> >
> > I dare to suppose that the instrumental dificulties faced by this first
> > experimentalist, where time was measured by heartbeats
>
> There was an article in Scientific American some years ago [precise reference
> not available -- no access to suitable index -- sorry] which rather
> convincingly argued that Galileo timed experiments by singing.  

Check out http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/museo/4/eiv13.html
which shows Galileo's inclined plane with five bells (and a pendulum).  
You adjust the location of the bells such that each is rung by the ball
at the same time INTERVAL, then you can compare the distances between
the bells.  This is not G's original apparatus or experiment, but is
nice for showing the law of falling bodies.

What IS only too genuine is G's famous finger at the same site:
http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/museo/4/eiv10.html

Index for the site is at http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/museo/4/index.html

Regards,

Dan M

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern AZ Univ
danmac@nau.edu  http://www.phy.nau.edu/~danmac/homepage.html