James Clerk Maxwell conducted some of the first documented studies of free-falling objects during the mid-1800s, when the physicist analyzed the tumbling motion of a freely falling plate. But much ...

Source: NOVA: "Galileo's Battle for the Heavens" This resource was adapted from NOVA: "Galileo's Battle for the Heavens." Galileo thought a great deal about the motion of falling objects. Specifically ...

If you drop an object, it will fall. It's a motion that we’ve all seen hundreds of times. We’ve also all seen plenty of the moon, which makes one complete orbit around our planet every 27.3 days (as ...

Our motion perception is remarkably well tuned to detect small changes in speed and direction. For example, soccer goalkeepers need to precisely judge the speed, direction, and curvature of an ...

Source: NOVA: "Galileo's Battle for the Heavens" This resource can be found on the NOVA: "Galileo's Battle for the Heavens" Web site. The motion of objects fascinated Galileo throughout his life. When ...

Take a pencil, stretch out your arm, and let go. We all know that the pencil will fall. OK, but what about dropping a bowling ball? Is that the same thing? No wait! How about a watermelon dropped off ...