WOLFRAM|DEMONSTRATIONS PROJECT

Galileo's Inclined Plane Experiment

​
t
10.
In 1603, Galileo performed a classic experiment in mechanics: he measured the distances covered by a ball rolling on an inclined plane, which slows down the ball, compared to its free fall. The distance traveled grows by the increasing ratios 1, 3, 5, 7, … units for any angle, leading to the key observation that the total distance
d
covered is proportional to the time
t
squared
(d∼
2
t
), with the progression 1, 4, 9, 16, ….