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Galileo's Battle for the Heavens

His Experiments

 

Galileo homepage

Falling Objects | Projectiles | Inclined Planes | Pendulums

Diagram: three pendulums

Pendulum

A swinging chandelier in a cathedral got Galileo thinking about the motion of pendulums, which led to the experiments he conducted while at the University of Pisa.

Experiment with a pendulum. See how changing its weight, the height of release, and its length affects its period (how fast it makes one complete swing).

Which of the following statements is true?

  1. changing the bob's weight changes the pendulum's period

  2. changing the release height changes the pendulum's period

  3. changing the length changes the pendulum's period







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