Museo Galileo
italiano
Virtual Museum
Multimedia
Galileo and the science of motion
Video   Text

 

Galileo's research marked a crucial stage in the process leading to the formulation of the modern concept of motion. The Pisan scientist was the first to establish the laws that, in natural motion, govern the ratios between distances traveled and time elapsed. Galileo asserted the direct proportionality between acceleration and time. He also formulated the laws of pendular movements; according to legend, the starting point was his casual observation of the oscillations of a lantern in the Cathedral of Pisa. In the Dialogue, he included highly perceptive comments on the relativity of motion. And, in the Discourses and demonstrations, he showed that projectiles travel on a parabolic path. Galileo ably combined mathematical reasoning with the evidence obtained from systematic observations of pendular movements and descents along inclined planes, as well as from ingenious experiments such as the probably apocryphal dropping of spheres of different materials from the Tower of Pisa.

Objects
Application of the pendulum to the clock

Application of the pendulum to the clock

Inv. 2433
Author unknown, 19th cent. (copy)

Brachistochronous fall

Brachistochronous fall

Inv. 966
Francesco Spighi, Florence, second half 18th cent.

Inclined plane

Inclined plane

Inv. 1041
Maker unknown, Florence, early 19th cent.

Model of the application of the pendulum to the clock

Model of the application of the pendulum to the clock

Inv. 2085
Eustachio Porcellotti, Florence, 1877

Model of the application of the pendulum to the clock

Model of the application of the pendulum to the clock

Inv. 3450
Eustachio Porcellotti, 1860