Inclined

to
Success
The Alpha
Experiment of
Maria Fe C. Ascao
Josephine Galileo
N. Tabajonda
Master of Arts in Science
Education- General Science

I.

Summary
Galileo Galilei is considered to be one of the fathers of modern science due to his

extensive research in astronomy and physics. In the early seventeenth century, Galileo makes
a claim concerning the natural motion of a freely falling body. Galileo claimed that a
naturally falling object will gain equal amounts of velocity in equal amounts of time. If
correct, this means that the objects speed increases as it falls and the rate at which it picks up
speed does not change during the fall. However, practical problems make it difficult for
Galileo to put such a claim to any experimental test. Freely falling objects move too quickly
to study or record the motion directly. Because seventeenth century clocks could not record
the short times involved, Galileo tried to slow down the motion by replacing the falling
object with a ball rolling down a gently inclined plane. "In order to make use of motions as
slow as possible ... I also thought of making movables descend along an inclined plane not
much raised above the horizontal" (Galileo, Two New Sciences, p. 87). Notice that Galileo
assumed that objects descending an incline speed up in exactly the same way falling objects
do. Essentially, he reasoned as follows. A ball rolling down a steep incline will pick up speed
faster than a ball rolling down a gentle incline, but the way in which its speed increases will
be the same. Freefall, he reasoned, is simply equivalent to a vertical ramp. The character of
the balls motion in freefall should be the same as the character of the motion of a ball
falling down the inclined plane. Another technological problem arose in measuring the
velocity. If Galileos hypothesis is right, the velocity of the freely falling object changes
continuously. Galileo cannot measure changing velocities directly, but he can measure
distances and times. Galileo, therefore, uses math to transform his claim about times and
velocities into a claim about times and distances. His mathematical argument is summarized
below: If an object gains speed at a steady rate and if the object is released from rest, then the
total distance traveled by the object will be proportional to the square of the time needed for
that travel. For example, if an object released from rest travels, say for three seconds, it will
travel 3*3 or 9 times as far as it would if it traveled for only one second after being released
from rest. The precise formula took many years for Galileo to establish and verify and
appears in public for the first time in his Two New Sciences, more than three decades after
the first inclined experiments were carried out. We can write it in the form s = at 2, where s
is distance, t is time, and a is a constant (~ 9.8 m/s2) the uniform acceleration due to gravity.

II.

Experimental Set-Up

III.

Procedures

A wooden beam with one arms length is glued with a velum so that it will be clean and
smoothed. The beam is tilted by elevating one end of it above the horizontal plane. A bronze ball
is rolled down on a inclined wooden beam and to keep the track of the time he measured the
amount of liquid that flowed through a small pipe during the descend of the ball to compute how
much time had elapsed.
When the ball is rolled a quarter length, it took half the time; at other distance, time elapsed
is according to the same ratio. When the experiment is repeated hundred times, the spaces were
found to be one another as the square of the times.

IV.

Insights

Ascao, Maria Fe C.
MaEd in General Science

Inclined plane experiment is a beauty itself because he showed us that we can perform
experiments using materials that are readily available. The experimental set up is very easy that
anyone can repeat the experiment itself. The only problem is the time clock used. At that time no
technology is available to measure accuracy of time. Many scientists questioned the reliability of
water time clock because of its ability to measure the short time interval of the experiment.
Water timer can be subjected to errorr. But what is good about galielo is that he perofrmed his
expeirments in public. He accepted questions and criticisms about his work but these did not
hamper him to continue his works. He contually worked on the experiment.

Another to consider is that he studied motion in another perspective. Previous scientists

used space to determine the motion but in his studies he did not on it it instead he used time to
determine motion. He may not be able to determine the term gravity but it opened doors to other
scientists to continue the study like Newton. His experiments laid down to new ideas and
discoveries.

Tabajonda, Josephine N.
MaEd in General Science
The quest of Galileo for the triumph of his inclined plane experiment is not easy as
drinking a glass of water. He encountered several difficulties and criticisms especially from his

colleagues, nonetheless, I admired Galileos bravery for not giving up without a fight. I, for
myself cannot blame Galileos flaws during the process of the experiment. I considered the fact
that during their era technology is not as established compared on todays technology.
Having read and understand the story behind Galileos inclined plane experiment I can
now agree why it is called one of the most beautiful experiment in physics. Despite of all the
hindrances such as low advancement of the technology during those times that causes the
disbelief of people to his work questioning its accuracy and reliability. Nevertheless we should
be grateful to Galileo if not because of his perseverance we wont established some important
physics concept that we are encountering on our day to day living. With this, I quote one of the
statement I have read in the book saying The beautiful thing wasnt learning that gravity is 9.8
m/s, but in showing us that from a simple set up we could quantitatively measure something
important in physics
The statement above is just simply saying that the success of Galileos inclined plane
experiment is a blessing in disguise. Many may suspicious on the experiment but on the long run
gave birth to the success of other prominent scientists weve known like Isaac Newton because
of his Newtons Law of Motion. Galileo may not established the concept that 9.8 m/s, is constant
because it is the acceleration of gravity on Earth. With this I have come to a realization that
significant physics concepts comes from the study of the inclined plane.

V.

References
Internet Resources

http://web.mit.edu/redingtn/www/netadv/SP20130422.html
http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/rolling-downhill-measuring-acceleration/
http://www.arthurstinner.com/stinner/ppts/hs-galilosinclinedplane.pdf