Galileo’s Free Fall Experiment

The concept of inertia was established by Galileo. It states that if an object is free-falling or rolling down an inclined plane, the distance traveled by the object is directly proportional to the time. Let s be the distance and t be the time traveled then

s ∝ t²

Galileo did an experiment to find this concept. Galileo decided to put the ball on two types of inclined planes as shown in the figure below. The first experiment had both planes equal, it was observed that the ball when rolled down from a certain height reached up to the same height when the surface is extremely smooth. In the second experiment, the other slope is decreased and observed that still the ball reaches up the same height.

Similarly, when the slope of the plane is completely removed, the ball shall reach infinity but due to the presence of friction, it stops after a certain point. Therefore, Aristotle’s concept was turned out to be false, since if any friction is not present (assuming), an object in motion shall always remain in motion.

Inertia Exlpain by Galileo

In the conclusion of his free falling experiment Galileo conclude that, Inertia is the internal property of the material and its is responsible for its state of rest or motion and changing the state of inertia requires an external force. This is later confined by Issac Netwon in his Newton’s Laws of Motion.

Read More,

• Netwon’s Second Law of Motion
• Newton’s Third Law of Motion
• Equations of Motion

Inertia is the basic concept of physics that is explained using the concept of Mass. The inertial concept was first explained by Sir Isaac Newton and the Law of Inertia is explained as any object in a state of rest or in a state of motion always staying in its state of rest or motion until an external force is applied. We can define Inertia in physics as the property of the matter that is linked to the mass of the object.

In this article, we will learn about, What is Inertia, What is Law of Inertia, Examples of the Law of Inertia, and others in detail.