Discovering Gravity: Galileo's Groundbreaking Findings

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on Galileo's methods for determining the acceleration due to gravity, specifically the value of 9.81 m/s². Participants explore the historical context, experimental techniques, and accuracy of Galileo's findings, touching on both theoretical and practical aspects of his work.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Historical

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions how Galileo determined the value of gravity, suggesting uncertainty about his methods.
  • Another participant asserts that Galileo did not determine the value of gravity accurately.
  • Some participants propose that Galileo's experiments in an airless environment allowed him to deduce the behavior of falling objects based on time measurements.
  • It is mentioned that pendulum timing can provide a reasonable measurement of gravitational acceleration, regardless of air resistance.
  • One participant describes Galileo's use of rolling balls down a ramp and timing their descent with a metronome, noting that he concluded objects fall at a constant rate independent of mass.
  • Another participant highlights that Galileo did not express gravitational acceleration in modern units, as the meter was not established until long after his time.
  • Some participants note that Galileo's measurements were limited by the accuracy of the clocks available to him, leading to inaccuracies in determining the value of g.
  • There is a mention of Newton and others improving upon Galileo's experiments to achieve more accurate measurements of gravitational acceleration.
  • One participant references Galileo's imprisonment by the church due to his views on gravity, adding a historical context to the discussion.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the accuracy of Galileo's findings and the methods he used. There is no consensus on the effectiveness of his experiments or the validity of the value of gravity he might have derived.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the historical context of measurement techniques available to Galileo, the lack of precise timing devices, and the definitions of gravitational acceleration that were not established during his lifetime.

bebe_boobs
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gravity is 9.81m/s but how was Galileo able to determine that number ? :confused:
 
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think he didnt
 
He did his experiment in an airless place. Therefore; by the help of basic physics rules, he can solve the problem with just the time that is same for all matter in an airless place during freely fall.

I hope u understand.
 
Air or no air, you can measure g reasonably accurately just by timing the period of a pendulum.
 
He rolled balls down a ramp, he marked the location of the ball with each tick of a metronome. With these measurements he deduced the fact that an object falling fell at a constant rate (of increase) independent of the mass.

He certainly did not express the constant in terms of meter/sec^2, since the meter was not introduced as a unit of distance for another 200yrs after his death.
 
Galileo never quite got the accuracy of 9.8. Here is a summary from another website:
The first systematic tests of the universality of free fall were done by Galileo [2], who measured the acceleration of freely falling objects, or of objects rolling down an inclined plane. Such an approach suffers from great inaccuracies, which are related to the short time scales involved. Indeed, Galileo was unable to accurately determine g, the gravitational acceleration at the surface of the Earth, due to the lack of an accurate clock. Galileo concluded that a much better way to check the universality of free fall was to use a pendulum. Newton, and following him others, improved on Galileo’s experiments, and were able to determineg quite accurately.
 
and he was imprisioned by the church for his thoughts about gravity
 

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