Chapter Project One Galileo did a series of experiments to show that all bodies accelerate toward the earth

and that they all accelerate in the same way. He also showed that in the absence of friction, bodies would keep moving forever. In effect, he achieved a partial understanding of gravity, and he discovered the concepts of acceleration and inertia. Galileo (and Newton after him) showed that the acceleration of gravity is a constant for all objects at the surface of the Earth, which means that the velocity of a falling object increases continuously. Galileo reached the conclusion that bodies fall on the surface of the earth at a constant acceleration, and that the force of gravity which causes all bodies to move downward is a constant force. In other words, a constant force does not lead to constant speed but to constant acceleration. The law of inertia states that it is the tendency of an object to resist a change in motion. According to Newton, an object will stay at rest or stay in motion unless acted on by a net external force. Inertia by historians of science, is a precursor to, but distinct from, Newton's notion of rectilinear motion. For Galileo, a motion is 'horizontal' if it does not carry the moving body towards or away from the center of the earth. Galileo stated that, in the absence of a force, a moving object will continue moving. The tendency of objects to resist changes in motion was what Galileo called inertia. This insight was refined by Newton, who made it into his first law, also known as the "law of inertia"no force means no acceleration, and hence the body will maintain its velocity. As Newton's first law is a restatement of the law of inertia which Galileo had already described, Newton appropriately gave credit to Galileo \