INVESTIGATION OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE TIME PERIOD OF A SIMPLE PENDULUM.
I will begin with an explanation of motions and Galileo's discovery of motion under gravity:.
Galileo's insight was that all bodies fall equally fast in a gravitational field. "Falling in space,"" means simply following the orbit under gravity. There is no need for this "falling" to be straight down since there is no up, down or any point of reference in space. Gravity can be cancelled in this way by free fall because the effects of a gravitational field are just like those of acceleration. Indeed if you are inside a lift which accelerates upwards, you simple experience an increase in the apparent gravitational field and if downwards then a decrease. If the cable suspending the lift were to break, then the resulting downward acceleration would completely cancel the effect of gravity, and the occupants of the lift would appear to float freely until the lift hits the ground.
Now I shall see how Newton changed our understanding of the Universe by enumerating his Three Laws of Motion:.
Newton's first law of motion; "every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it."".
Newton's second law of motion; "The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector."" [I have explained this further a few pages down, in my coursework].
Newton's third law of motion: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction-. This law is exemplified by what happens if we step off a boat onto the bank of a lake: as we move in the direction of the shore, the boat tends to move in the opposite direction (leaving us facedown in the water, if we aren't careful!).
