Falling Bodies

bodies moving toward the center of the earth by reason of the attraction of gravitation. Theoretically bodies fall toward the center. As a matter of fact the more rapid rotation of the earth's surface gives a falling body an eastward motion. A monkey-wrench or other object dropped down the Red Jacket shaft of the Calumet and Hecla copper mine of Michigan lodges on the east side of the shaft half way down. Galileo worked out the laws of falling bodies by dropping large and small iron balls from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He found, for instance, that large and small balls reached the ground at the same moment. He found also that bodies fall 16 feet during the first second, 3 times 16 feet during the second second, 5 times 16 feet during the third second, and so on; the gain in distance being the same for each second. The distance through which a body falls in any given second may be found by multiplying 16 feet by one less than twice the number of the second. The total distance through which a body falls in any given number of seconds may be found by adding these values. The same result may be obtained if 16 feet be multiplied by the square of the number of seconds. In 2 seconds a body starting from rest will fall (16X2X2) or 64 feet; in 2 1/2 seconds, (16X2 1/2X2 1/2) or 100 feet; in 5 seconds, (16X5X5) or 400 feet. The foregoing rules apply only to objects of sufficient weight to fall without sensible resistance from the atmosphere. A feather or piece of tissue paper encounters too much resistance from the air to illustrate the laws. If either were made into a pellet under great pressure it would drop like a grain of shot. If a stone be thrown upward it will occupy as much time in falling as it took in going up. The laws of falling bodies, therefore, apply to bodies thrown upward as well. If the length of time that a missile is in the air be divided by two we have the length of time required in falling, and can estimate the height to which it rose. The horizontal distance to which it is thrown has no influence on the time of rising and falling, and may be left out of account. See Gravity