Since the most remote times, man has studied the movements that occur in nature, and among all of them always there was great interest in the falling movement of bodies when they are abandoned near the surface of the Earth. If we abandon a stone from a certain height, we notice that its movement is accelerated, if we throw that same stone from the bottom up, we notice that the movement is slowed down. For a long time these movements were objects of study by scholars.
Around 300 years before Christ, there was a Greek philosopher named Aristotle who believed that if we left two bodies of different masses, of the same height, the heavier body would touch the ground first, that is, the time of fall of these bodies would be many different. This belief lasted for many years without anyone trying to verify if what the philosopher said was really true.
Around the 17th century, the physicist Galileo Galilei, introducing the experimental method, came to the conclusion that when two bodies of different masses, disregarding air resistance, are dropped from the same height, both reach the ground in the same instant.
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The story goes that Galileo went to the top of the Tower of Pisa, in Italy, and from there carried out experiments to prove his claim about the falling movement of bodies. He abandoned several spheres of different masses and found that they hit the ground at the same instant. Even after the evidence of his experiences, many of Aristotle's followers were unconvinced, and Galileo was the target of persecution for his revolutionary ideas.
It is important to make clear that Galileo's statement is only valid for bodies falling in a vacuum, that is, free from air or air resistance and with negligible resistance. Thus, the movement is called free fall.
By Marco Aurélio da Silva
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SANTOS, Marco Aurélio da Silva. "The free fall movement"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/fisica/o-movimento-queda-livre.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
