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Galileo carried out systematic quantitative (numerical) measurements rather than just describing things qualitatively
* Galileo dropped a cannonball and a musketball simultaneously from a tower, and observed that they hit the ground at nearly the same time. This contradicted Aristotle's long-accepted idea that heavier objects fell faster. [http://www.vias.org/physics/bk1_05_01.html]
* Galileo dropped a cannonball and a musketball simultaneously from a tower, and observed that they hit the ground at nearly the same time. This contradicted Aristotle's long-accepted idea that heavier objects fell faster. [http://www.vias.org/physics/bk1_05_01.html]
* Galileo determined that the [[acceleration]] of these bodies is constant. He demonstrated that an object released from a height starts with zero velocity and increases its speed with time (before him it was thought that bodies when released acquire instantaneously a [[velocity]] which remained constant but was larger the heavier the object was). Experimenting with inclined planes, and measuring a ball's positions after equal time intervals Galileo discovered the mathematical expression of the law of falling bodies: the distance increases as the square of the time. [http://physics.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/Notes_www/node49.html]
* Galileo determined that the [[acceleration]] of these bodies is constant. He demonstrated that an object released from a height starts with zero velocity and increases its speed with time (before him it was thought that bodies when released acquire instantaneously a [[velocity]] which remained constant but was larger the heavier the object was). Experimenting with inclined planes, and measuring a ball's positions after equal time intervals Galileo discovered the mathematical expression of the law of falling bodies: the distance increases as the square of the time. [http://physics.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/Notes_www/node49.html]
==Science becomes systematic==
*Aristotle's observations had been incomplete, his interpretation a vast oversimplification. It is inconceivable that Galileo was the first person to observe a discrepancy with Aristotle's predictions. Galileo was the one who changed the course of history because he was able to assemble the observations into a coherent pattern, and also because he carried out systematic quantitative (numerical) measurements rather than just describing things qualitatively. [http://www.vias.org/physics/bk1_05_01.html]
==External links==
==External links==