One, Three, Five, Seven
Leo drops a stone from a bridge. It falls 4.9 m in the first second and 14.7 m in the next, three times as far in the same time.
Why is the second interval not the same as the first?
Page 1
Science · Honors Physics
Chapter 1: Kinematics with Calculus Readiness
Four equations, one assumption, and where it comes from.
Leo drops a stone from a bridge. It falls 4.9 m in the first second and 14.7 m in the next, three times as far in the same time.
Why is the second interval not the same as the first?
Make your guess to turn the page.
Still to come: 11 pages · Lab · Words to Know · What We Learned · 4 questions · Explain It in Writing · Open Questions
The idea this lesson is working on — Students treat the kinematic equations as laws of motion rather than consequences of one assumption, and they are rarely shown a case where the assumption fails. The book derives the equations from the area under a straight velocity line, then breaks them with a coffee filter and a car that has stopped. Ask: is the acceleration constant here? The idea to reach is four equations, one assumption.
About the Galileo data — The folio 107v numbers are Stillman Drake's reading of Galileo's working notes (published in the 1970s); the page itself has no explanation, and how Galileo kept equal times is inferred. The water-clock method and the hundred trials are from Two New Sciences, Third Day. The coffee filter figures are typical of a classroom measurement, not a standard value.