Who first calculated the rate of fall of an object?

mochyn

NEWTON Feb 01 03, 4:09 AM

Kainantu

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) Newton related that the occasion of this discovery was the fall of an apple. What did he mean? If the moon moves in an orbit around the Earth, and does not fly off in a straight line along a tangent to the orbit, there must be a force directed to the Earth, a 'centripetal' force pulling the moon to the center of the Earth. The situation is similar to that of a ball whirling in a circle at the end of a {string;} if the string breaks, the centripetal force ceases to be exerted, and the ball flies off along a tangent. Expressed differently, the moon is continually drawn away from its rectilinear tangential path by a {force;} this force causes the moon to fall continually away from a straight line and to follow its observed orbit. Newton computed the distance the moon must fall in each second. If the force that makes the moon fall varies inversely as the square of the distance, then, since the moon is at a distance of 60 earth radii from the earth's center, the earth's force is 1/602 or 1/3600 of what it would be if the moon were at the Earth's surface. Hence, assuming that the force of gravity keeps the moon in its orbit and that this force varies inversely as the distance, Newton could predict the rate of fall of an object to the Earth. http://www.evangelical-anjar.org/astromania/My%20Webs/mywebs/astromania/scientists/newton.htm Feb 01 03, 9:03 AM

Gnomon

Galileo Galilei. He is supposed to have dropped things off the Leaning Tower of Pisa and measured the time it took them to hit the ground. While this is not actually true, he did study the rate at which things fell to the ground. Feb 01 03, 10:14 PM

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