Re: how did galileo know...
- From: Robert Kolker <nowhere@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:07:33 -0400
francisco wrote:
In Galileo's day, the law of the pendulum was crucial to developing accurate pendulum clocks. The point is that, in the range of swings that are not too large, the period (or frequency) of the oscillations is independent of the exact size (amplitude) of the swing. Thus, as the clock winds down and the swings get smaller, the pendulum still beats at the same rate. It was the Dutch mathematician and natural philosopher, Christian Huygens, who actually developed good pendulum clocks, after Galileo's death. Clocks were typically driven by weights, but spring-driven clocks also underwent rapid development in the 17th century.
It is ironic that constant frequency of pendula of a given length could be used to prove that the Earth indeed moves (i.e. rotates). Leon Focault did just that in 1851. If Galileo fully grasped inertia he might have thought of that experiment well before Focault.
If you recall the scholars of the Church faulted Galileo for failing to prove the motion(s) of the Earth. He assumed the motions and thought the tides were sufficient proof. It turned out Galileo's theory of tides was flat out wrong and did not constitute proof of the earth's motion(s). Stellar Aberration was not known until 1726 and Focault's Pendulum was not deployed until 1851. The motion(s) of the earth were supposed or hypothesized prior to be being emprically established. By the time Focault deployed his epynomous pendulum most of the world accept the motion(s) of the earth as being obvious or commonsensical. They were neither.
Bob Kolker
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