Do Now:

What is motion?
Describe the motion of an object.
Objective:
 Beable to describe examples of motion and forces in our
everyday life.

Agenda:
 Motion Introduction
 Motion Lab experiment.
Aristotle and Galileo’s Concept of Motion
Aristotle

 384 BC – 322 BC
 Ancient Greece

 One of the first to try to explain the

natural world

 Ideas based on observations that

seemed to be true
Aristotelian Physics

 Aristotle's
physics agrees with
most people's common sense, but
modern scientists discard it. So
what went wrong?
 Here's what Aristotle said:
Aristotelian Physics
 Aristotle’s classification of motion
 Natural motion
 every object in the universe has a proper place determined by a
combination of four elements:
 earth, water, air, and fire
 any object not in its proper place will strive to get there
 examples:
– stones fall
– puffs of smoke rise
Aristotelian Physics

 Natural motion (continued)

 straight up or straight down for all things on earth
 beyond Earth, motion is circular example: Sun and Moon
continually circle Earth
 Violent motion
 producedby external pushes or pulls on objects example:
wind imposes motion on ships
Aristotelian Physics

 Aristotle
said that a heavier object should naturally fall
much faster than a lighter object.
 With modern technology, it is easy to demonstrate that a
feather and a rock fall at exactly the same rate in a vacuum
tube.
 Therewas a man who lived 400 years ago who didn't need
our modern technology to figure out that Aristotle was
wrong.
 Who was he?
 Galileo
Galileo

 1564 – 1642
 Italy

 Rolled and dropped

objects to discover the true
aspects of motion
Galileo's Physics

 Aristotle had said that heavy objects should fall noticeably

faster than lighter objects.
 Galileo was the first scientist to challenge him on this!
 Galileo'sLaw of Falling: If air resistance is negligible,
then any two objects that are dropped together will fall
together, regardless of their weights and their shapes, and
regardless of the substances of which they are made.
Galileo's Physics

 Galileo correctly identified the influence of the

force of friction on objects.
 When objects move they usually rub against a
surface. They can even rub against the air.
 This rubbing force, which opposes their motion is
called friction.
 To truly observe an object in its natural state of
motion, as Aristotle envisioned, you would have to
get rid of the interfering influence of friction.
Galileo's Physics

 In principle, it is next to impossible to get rid of all friction, but, as

technology has advanced, we can now get pretty close.
 When you drop a feather and a stone in the air, the stone obviously
falls faster. Galileo would say that friction with the air is holding
back the feather. What would Aristotle say?
 When you drop a feather and a stone in a vacuum, they fall together
at the same rate.
 Unfortunately, Galileo could not do this kind of demonstration in a
vacuum.
 Galileo's Physics

 However, it is alleged that Galileo did do another kind of

demonstration where the effects of friction with the air could be
minimized.
 It is said that Galileo dropped a 10 kilogram cannonball and a 1
kilogram stone from the leaning tower of Pisa. Despite the fact that
the cannonball was 10 times heavier, it hit the ground at nearly the
same time as the stone.
 The acceleration of gravity should be the same for both.
Galileo's Physics

 Galileo observed that a ball rolling down a

steep ramp picks up speed quickly.

 A ball rolling down a ramp that is less steep

still picks up speed but at a slower rate.
Galileo's Physics
 Galileo reasoned that if you were to start a ball moving on
a horizontal surface, ideally it should never speed up or
slow down. It would keep on moving forever.

 Of course, there would have to be no friction.

 Today, we can come close to this by observing objects in
outer space or on low friction surfaces such as ice.
Galileo's Physics

 Inthe absence of friction, a ball rolling down the incline

on the left tends to roll up to its initial height on the right.
 Galileo's Physics

 Galileo also sought to know what an object's natural

state (or tendency) of motion should be.
 Unlike Aristotle, Galileo came to a different conclusion.
 Galileo said that an object in motion will tend to keep
on moving in a straight line at constant speed unless
there was some unbalanced force (like friction) acting
upon it.
 This is the Law of Inertia