Galileo and its Leaning Tower experiment, maybe Galileo was not the first person to do this experiment

What is the truth of the falling body experiment

Galileo of Italy (1564 ~ 1642) is known as the father of modern science.

Before him, the theory of the great Greek philosopher Aristotle had absolute authority in academia. Even scientists must judge things based on Aristotle's books. Galileo resisted this trend and proposed a correct scientific judgment method based on his own observations and experiments. As one of the means of resistance, he deliberately chose Aristotle's theory of "the heavier the object, the faster it will fall" and decided to take a head-on.

One day in 1590, the University of Pisa lecturer Galileo Galilei (Galileo galilei) at the famous University of Pisa Leaning Tower (30 On the seven-story balcony with a height of several meters, two metal balls of different weights were dropped. Professors and students of the University of Pisa gathered under the tower to watch the experiment. As Aristotle said, everyone thinks that the weight will drop first. But unexpectedly, the two balls landed at the same time, which surprised everyone present. This is actually just a story. Judging from various evidences, there is no such thing at all, pure legend.

If it did happen, it would cause a great sensation, but no similar records were found in the literature at the time, and even Galileo’s own work was not mentioned.

To be honest, Galileo does not need to do any experiments. He cleverly proved that Aristotle's theory was wrong based on arguments alone. If we assume that the heavier an object, the faster it will fall. If we use a rope to tie a heavy object and a light object tightly, what will happen? Even if a heavy object wants to fall quickly, It will also fall slower than being pulled by a lighter object behind it. But if you add the weight of a light object to a heavy object, then

shouldn’t the heavy object fall faster than the individual object? Two completely contradictory conclusions are drawn from the same assumption . This proves that the original assumption is wrong. Therefore, heavy objects and light objects fall at the same speed.

In fact, in 1587, the experiment in which two shot balls dropped from the second floor window landed at the same time was done by this man named Simon Stevens, from the Netherlands. But Galileo did not know this. Galileo’s student in his later years, Viveyani, mentioned his public experiment for the first time in The Biography of Galileo (published in 1654), but Viveyani always seemed to respect his teacher and described the experiment as Galileo did it.

Is the earth still turning

In 1633, Galileo was handed over to the Roman religious court. He suspected that the book "The Dialogue between Ptolemy and Copernicus" ("Astronomical Dialogue") published three years ago was actually supporting and promoting the Polish astronomer Copernicus (1473 ~ 1473)

in 1543). Prior to this, most people believed in the theory of celestial motion and believed that the earth was the center of the universe and all celestial bodies were rotating around the earth. According to the theory of motion of the earth (more precisely, the center of the sun), the sun is the center of the universe surrounded by the earth and other planets. From today's scientific point of view, this is the correct idea. However, the Catholic Church believes that the doctrine of Earthquake contradicts the Bible and is therefore wrong and extremely dangerous.

According to the church, Galileo was summoned by the religious court in 1616, and he was warned not to support or spread the doctrine of the movement, and he vowed to abide by it. It is said that the document recording this incident is still kept. If he knew nothing about the situation at the time, it was forgivable, but if he made a promise, but violated the promise, then his crime would be serious. However, most people think this document isFabricated to frame him. It is said that he was only told that Copernicus's works were included in the banned book list (so Catholics could not read it).

Therefore, the court's investigation is very strict. He was shown many instruments of torture and threatened that if he did not admit that he was suspected of committing a crime, he would be executed. The 70-year-old Galileo was frail and eventually pleaded guilty against his will and surrendered to the court.

On June 22, 1633, a monastery in Rome made a decision. Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment. After that, in front of the judge, he put his hands on the holy book, knelt on his knees, and solemnly swore that he no longer believed, promoted, or taught the doctrine of earth movement.

However, Gilillo, who stood up from the oath and could not bear the condemnation of being a scientist, said to himself: "Nevertheless, the earth is still turning."

Galileo loves Stories of truth and courage are widely circulated among people. Unfortunately, this is not the case. If he said this, the court would consider it an insult and would immediately arrest him again and increase his sentence. However, although he was sentenced to imprisonment, he was actually released after two days in jail, and was soon allowed to return to his home, where he was slightly punished. More importantly, for the sickly 70-year-old, they succumbed under the threat of torture.

It was impossible for him to have such courage when he was 18 years old.

However, it is completely conceivable that Galileo would make such a complaint when he returned to his friend's house in relief after the sentence was pronounced. Since the 20th century, evidence indirectly supporting this complaint has been found. Perhaps it was this kind of private conversation that was inadvertently passed on as an allegation in court

and courage.

The philosopher Russell once said: "Galileo said to himself after taking the oath:'Nevertheless, the earth is still turning', this is not correct." It is not Galileo who said this, but the whole world.

But Galileo did not fully submit to the church. He was kept in a private house until he died after blindness. However, in 1636, he completed his last great book on these two new sciences. In 1638, he published this book in the Protestant Netherlands, where there is a free publishing house. This great work laid the foundation of modern science and gave a brilliant light in history.