10 The Law of Falling Objects

The class gasped, Aristotle? Wrong?! The first fact every schoolboy learned in beginning science was that the writings of the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, were the
foundation of science. One of Aristotles central theorems stated that heavier objects fall
faster because they weigh more.
Galileo climbed onto his desk, held the bricks at eye level, and let them fall. Thud!
Both bricks crashed to the floor. Did the heavier brick fall faster? he demanded.
The class shook their heads. No, it had not. They landed together.
Again! cried Galileo. His students were transfixed as Galileo again dropped the
bricks. Crash! Did the heavy brick fall faster? No, again the bricks landed together. Aristotle is wrong, declared their teacher to a stunned circle of students.
But the world was reluctant to hear Galileos truth. On seeing Galileos brick demonstration, friend and fellow mathematician Ostilio Ricci admitted only that This double
brick falls at the same rate as this single brick. Still, I cannot so easily believe Aristotle is
wholly wrong. Search for another explanation.
Galileo decided that he needed a more dramatic, irrefutable, and public demonstration.
It is believed (though not substantiated) that, for this demonstration, Galileo dropped a
ten-pound and a one-pound cannonball 191 feet from the top of the famed Leaning Tower
of Pisa. Whether he actually dropped the cannonballs or not, the science discovery had been
made.
Fun Facts: Speaking of falling objects, the highest speed ever reached
by a woman in a speed skydiving competition is 432.12 kph (268.5 mph).
Italian daredevil Lucia Bottari achieved this record-breaking velocity
above Bottens, Switzerland, on September 16, 2002, during the annual
Speed Skydiving World Cup.

More to Explore
Aldrain, Buzz. Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas. Chicago: Chicago Review Press,
2005.
Atkins, Peter, Galileos Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science. New York: Random
House, 2004.
Bendick, Jeanne. Along Came Galileo. San Luis Obispo, CA: Beautiful Feet Books,
1999.
Drake, Stillman. Galileo. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.
Fisher, Leonard. Galileo. New York: Macmillan, 1998.
Galilei, Galileo. Galileo on the World Systems: A New Abridged Translation and
Guide. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
MacHamer, Oeter, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Galileo. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1998.
MacLachlan, James. Galileo Galilei: First Physicist. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1997.
Sobel, Dava. Galileos Daughter. New York: Walker & Co., 1999.

Planetary Motion
Year of Discovery: 1609
What Is It? The planets orbit the sun not in perfect circles, but in ellipses.
Who Discovered It? Johannes Kepler

Why Is This One of the 100 Greatest?

Even after Copernicus simplified and corrected the structure of the solar system by discovering that the sun, not the earth, lay at the center of it, he (like all astronomers before
him) assumed that the planets orbited the sun in perfect circles. As a result, errors continued
to exist in the predicted position of the planets.
Kepler discovered the concept of the ellipse and proved that planets actually follow
slightly elliptical orbits. With this discovery, science was finally presented with an accurate
pictures of the position and mechanics of the solar system. After 400 years of vastly
improved technology, our image of how planets move is still the one Kepler created. We
havent changed or corrected it one bit, and likely never will.

How Was It Discovered?

For 2,000 years, astronomers placed the earth at the center of the universe and assumed
that all heavenly bodies moved in perfect circles around it. But predictions using this system
never matched actual measurements. Scientists invented epi-circlessmall circles that the
planets actually rolled around that, themselves, rolled around the great circular orbits for
each planet. Still there were errors, so scientists created epi-circles on the epi-circles.
Copernicus discovered that the sun lay at the center of the solar system, but still assumed that all planets traveled in perfect circles. Most epi-circles were eliminated, but errors in planetary plotting continued.
Johannes Kepler was born in Southern Germany in 1571, 28 years after the release of
Copernicuss discovery. Kepler suffered through a troubled upbringing. His aunt was
burned at the stake as a witch. His mother almost suffered the same fate. The boy was often
sick and had bad eyesight that glasses could not correct. Still, Kepler enjoyed a brilliant
but again troubleduniversity career.
In 1597 he took a position as an assistant to Tycho Brahe, famed German astronomer.
For decades Tycho had been measuring the position of the planets (especially Mars) with
far greater precision than any other European astronomer. When Tycho died in 1601 he left
all his notes and tables of planetary readings to Kepler.

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