Rampin’ Hotwheels
July 8th, 2009 by Grandpa OddballCopyright © GetOddNews and Grandpa Oddball July 8, 2009. All rights reserved.
Since I was in the hospital this week’s post will be shortened. My grandson recently devised a science experiment for school. It consisted of studing how hotwheels behaved while rolling down a ramp under different weights. This was my impression of his experiment.
Congratulations, you have good science instincts!!
Did you know that your experiment is essentially the same as one of the most famous physics experiment ever done? It was done by a physicist named Galileo (they were called natural philosophers instead of physicists back then). Instead of using hotwheels he rolled balls of different weights down a ramp (or inclined plane).
By using balls of different weights and varying both the length and angle of the inclined plane Galileo was able to determine the relationship between the distance the balls traveled and the speed and acceleration of the balls when moving in a gravitational field. This was important because it provided one of the two pillars for probably the most famous physics theory of all time. Namely, Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity.
- In order for Galileo to do his experiment he also had to invent the first reliable and accurate clock. He did this by using a pendulum to essentially create a pendulum clock.
- The other pillar of Newton’s theory of gravity was the “discovery” of Kepler’s laws by the astronomer Johannes Kepler who used the data recorded by the astronomer Tycho Brahe to discover the laws. Newton used Kepler’s Laws to show that planets orbit about the Sun in ellipses rather than circles.
As you can see science often advances by lots of small steps where someone just wonders what’s happening. Often the simplest questions produce the most profound results! Eventually someone has the insight to put all the seemingly unrelated observations together and come up with a credible theory to explain things. As Newton said “If I can see further than anyone else, it is only because I am standing on the shoulders of giants“.
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