Top 10 Greatest Physics Experiments: 9. Galileo’s Experiments With the Falling Bodies

In the late 1500's, everyone knew that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones. After all, one of the greatest ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle said so. Yet, Galileo, who at the time held a chair in mathematics in the University of Pisa, decided to do an experiment to test out Aristotle’s claims.

Galileo's experiment recreated:

So as the story goes (which is probably not true, but hey, it’s still a great experiment), Galileo threw two objects, one heavy and one light, from the leaning tower of Pisa. As we all know from high school, Galileo proved that lighter objects fall at the same rate as the more massive objects.

Galileo is often regarded as the father of experimental physics, as he was one of the first scientists, who started experimenting to test out theories of the time. The described experiment showed that scientific investigation is by far more important than personal authority of famous scientists and philosophers.

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