Galileo discovered before Newton that two objects of different weights an apple and a melon, for instance falling

from the same height would hit the ground at t he same time. He realized that gravity not only causes a body to fall, but also determines the motion of rising bodies and, furthermore, that gravity extends to the centre of the Earth. Galileo then showed that the motion of a projectile is made up of two components: one component consists of uniform motion in a horizo ntal direction, and the other component is vertical motion under acceleration or deceleration due to gravity. Galileo used this explanation to refute objections to Copernicus. It had been ar gued, against Copernicus, that a turning Earth would not carry along birds and c louds. Galileo explained that the motion of a bird, like a projectile, has a hor izontal component that is provided by the motion of the Earth and that this hori zontal component of motion always exists to keep such objects in position even t hough they are not attached to the ground. Galileo came to an understanding of uniform velocity and uniform acceleration by measuring the time it takes for bodies to move various distances. He had the br illiant idea of slowing vertical motion by measuring the movement of balls rolli ng down inclined planes, realizing that the vertical component of this motion is a uniform acceleration due to gravity. It took Galileo many years to arrive at the correct expression of the law of falling bodies, which he presented in Disco rsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nove scienze/Discourses and Mathem atical Discoveries Concerning Two New Sciences (1638) as: s=1/2at2 where s is speed, a is the acceleration due to gravity, and t is time. He found that the distance travelled by a falling body is proportional to the square of t he time of descent. A summation of his life's work, Discourses also included the facts that the traj ectory of a projectile is a parabola, and that the law of falling bodies is perf ectly obeyed only in a vacuum, and that air resistance always causes a uniform t erminal velocity to be reached.