Week # 7

Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was an Italian mathematician and astronomer who
devoted most of his academic life to the study of motion. He was mostly
concerned with what we now know as kinematics, which is the study of the
features of motion, i.e. how acceleration, speed and distance are related to one
another. Of particular interest to Galileo was finding out why some motions take
place in a straight line, and why some, like the orbits of planets, do not
Explanation of this was only provided by Isaac Newton almost half a century
after Galileo had died.
It was Galileo who first formulated the equations of straight line motion by
rolling spheres down smooth slopes and allowing spheres to fall vertically
through large distances, taking careful measurements of distance and time to
obtain the equations we now use. Galileo also discovered the relationship
between the length of a pendulum and its period of oscillation. Using his pulse as
a timer, he noticed that the time taken by a hanging lamp to complete one swing
did not vary with the angle through which it swung. By measuring the time taken
for pendulums of different lengths to complete their ‘swing’. Galileo was able to
show that the square of the period was proportional to the length of the
pendulum, or, stated in mathematical terms, that T 2 ∝ l, where T is the period or
the time for one swing to be completed and l is the length of the pendulum.

Simple Pendulum
A simple pendulum is an arrangement consisting of a heavy, but relatively small,
mass hanging from one end of a length of light string or thread, with the other
end of the thread or string attached to a fixed (i.e. immovable) support. If the
string or thread used is not light, but thick and heavy and the mass not small
compared with the thickness of the string, the pendulum is not considered
‘simple’.

Factors affecting the period of a pendulum

(i) the mass of the body at the end of the suspension;
(ii) the size of the body;
(iii) the angle through which the pendulum swings