Motion

Read more about the article Galileo versus Aristotle on free fall motion

Galileo versus Aristotle on free fall motion

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Galileo and Aristotle agreed on the same thing: what goes up must come down.

What they didn’t agree on is the why. Why do objects fall back down?

Their two perspectives, the Galilean and Aristotelian respectively, fiercely clashed in the late 1500s and early 1600s. It is one of the most popular and documented ‘feuds’ in the history of physics and helped inspire a paradigm shift of the 15th Century.

This article will revisit the two perspectives, mainly focusing on their differing views on free fall motion. 

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Read more about the article Understanding graphs of motion in kinematics.

Understanding graphs of motion in kinematics.

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But how true does this statement translate to the science of maths and equations? Personally, I’d argue that a graph is worth several mathematical equations, and at least a few hundred words. This is why it is absolutely important to understand the graphs of motion if you wish to master the physics of moving bodies. This next section illustrates my point.

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Read more about the article What is Isaac Newton’s second law of motion? A simple explanation.

What is Isaac Newton’s second law of motion? A simple explanation.

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This article discusses Newton’s second law of motion from a simple, layman’s approach. Plenty of examples are used in this article to improve clarity and familiarity. I advise you to take them with a healthy touch of skepticism.

Introduction to Newton’s second law

Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov was investigating the digestion of dogs in 1897 when he made an exciting discovery. He noticed that the dogs started salivating even before the food was presented to them. The sound of an assistant pushing a cart down the hall, or the mere presentation of eating pots was enough motivation to get the dogs’ mouths watery.

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Read more about the article Linear momentum: Definition, formula, and applications

Linear momentum: Definition, formula, and applications

Do we really need “linear momentum”? Can’t we just find a way to study motion with velocity, inertia, force, or energy? Why bring more jargon into what is already a confusing mess of terminologies and equations?

To a beginner, the concept of momentum can be a difficult thing to grasp and sometimes confusing. For example, momentum is a vector quantity, meaning it is a quantity that has magnitude as well as direction in space. This alone brings in a cascade of problems when solving questions because both have to be taken into account. And then comes along the concept of “conservation of momentum”, which is like spilling gasoline on the confusion fire. It doesn’t help that physics teachers love to mess around with these ideas as they lay traps and snares into their student’s exams.

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Newton’s first law of motion

I don’t know where you are as you are reading this. You could be sitting on a bus, in your room, at a cafe, in a park, or even lying on your bed. Whenever you may be, I am sure if you look around or listen carefully to your environment, you will note some hints of motion. Perhaps a bug buzzing around, a sound of a passing car, birds singing outside, a distant siren, or a screech of a chair. In any case, I can guarantee there is motion all around you.

But for the sake of this article, let us suppose that you are reading this from deep space, so deep that when you lift up your eyes to look around through the glass helmet of your spacesuit, all you see is pitch darkness. No stars or light of any kind; not a single dot in the bare dark sky.

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Read more about the article When Aristotle meets Isaac Newton: A Clash of Views

When Aristotle meets Isaac Newton: A Clash of Views

Aristotle was a philosopher, scientist, and teacher of the classical Ancient Greece period. He was by all accounts influential; he taught many great things in plenty of fields. For a long time, his philosophies were accepted as they were and other scholars merely only added to them or modified them a little. His philosophies about physics were however incorrect, and it took the audacious minds of Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Rene Descartes, Galileo, and ultimately Sir Isaac Newton to overthrow the long-established Aristotelian dogma.

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