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Fig 2.A1 Newtons third law. If one child pulls or pushes, both move
[Insert Fig 2.A2 from artwork brief]
Fig 2.A2
1.
What major contribution did Galileo make to the style of scientific decisionmaking?
2.
Think about the paths in the air of a thrown cricket ball and a badminton
shuttlecock. Which corresponds to
a) a Galilean model,
b) an Aristotelian one?
How, as a Galilean, would you explain the path of the shuttlecock to a sceptical
Aristotelian?
3.
Aristotles theories about motion had been accepted by intelligent people for almost
2000 years in Galileos time. One of his predictions was that a falling object (or a
ball rolling down a slope) would gain a speed that was proportional to the weight of
the object: heavy things fall faster. How could you adapt Galileos sloping plank
experiment to check whether or not this is true? What degree of accuracy would
you expect in your experiment?
4.
Galileo was criticised at the time for neglecting friction in his experiments. Both
sides found arguing about this difficult, because neither had a modern (Newtonian)
concept of force. But Galileo suggested an experiment, shown in Fig 2.A2, in
which a pendulum bob is let go but then the string is caught by a nail or peg. How
would this provide more convincing experimental support for his theory?