- Question 2:
- Had you heard of Galileo before you read about him in this article? What did you know about him?
- Answer:
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You may have heard that Galileo was the first person to view celestial objects through a telescope and record them. He observed the planet Venus, which goes through phases similar to our Moon. He found spots on the Sun and four giant moons around Jupiter. He also saw more stars in the sky through his telescope than he could see with his eyes alone.
Galileo, however, did not limit his observations to celestial objects. He also observed objects on Earth. One story says that he took students to the top of a tower and dropped balls of different weight off the top, showing that they hit the ground at the same time. Galileo also conducted “thought” experiments.
He imagined the world, for example, without friction. He took a ball and rolled it on a ramp that dipped in the middle so that both ends were above the ground. He noticed that the ball would roll down the ramp and up the other side, stopping at about the same height from which it was released. Then Galileo lowered one end of the ramp, making it less steep than the other side. He rolled the ball from the steeper end and watched the ball stop again at the same height from which it was released. Galileo then thought about what would happen if he placed one end of the ramp on the ground and rolled a ball from the steeper side. He believed that the ball would roll forever if there were no friction.
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