Galileo’s Experiment
Lab 1.2
Uniform Acceleration
The Relationship between the Angle of Inclination and Acceleration

Submitted By: Julian Dumo
Submitted To: Mrs. Rollings
Date: Wednesday October 10th, 2012.
Station #4
SPH4U1
What Was Galileo’s Experiment?
Galileo conducted an experiment to see whether an objects rate of decent was really proportional to the mass of that same object (Aristotle’s theory). Galileo proved the theory false by conducting an experiment that involved an inclined plane and a number of balls that were made of bronze. Galileo used an inclined plane in order to slow down the acceleration of the ball enough so that the elapsed time of the ball could be measured by the use of a water clock. Galileo made a very straight, polished, and smoothed groove in which the bronze ball would travel along. He also lined the groove with parchment, which too was then polished and smoothed as possible to create more of a frictionless surface. He would then let the bronze ball fall from rest, down the inclined plane in which then the water was released through a small pipe into another container, and was then weighed as a way to measure the travelled distance of the ball down the inclined plane. Galileo repeated this process for balls that had different sizes / masses and also inclined planes of different lengths. He came to the conclusion that an object’s mass had no relationship to the object’s rate of decent. Galileo discovered that the distance travelled was always equal to the square of the time regardless of what the differences between the masses of the objects were.
Galileo then conducted a second experiment in which he changed the angle of inclination of the plane, and again then let the bronze