Galileo's Gravity Experiment

This picture, painted in 1841, carries us back to an experiment Galileo is alleged to have made during his time as lecturer at Pisa. To the left and right are men of ill-will: the Prince Giovanni de Medici, and Galileo's scientific opponents. These were leading men of the universities, who are bending over the sacrosanct book of Aristotle, where it is written that according to the rules of gravity, bodies of unequal weight fall with different speeds. Galileo (the tallest figure left of center in the picture, surrounded by a group of students) had boldly stated the opposite view. Physics showed him to be right

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