Galileo observed that as a pendulums swings become shorter, the time of each swing remains the same. The number of swings would not change unless he changed the length of the string. Arguably, this discovery would be the literal dawn of what we currently describe as physics. It is the first scientific endeavor that is devoted purely to force and movement.Galileo also conducted experiments involving constant acceleration in falling objects and the previously held belief that the velocity of a falling object was directly related to the objects mass (Crombie 107). By timing balls as they rolled down an incline, Galileo proved that the weight of the individual ball had no effect on the speed with which it rolled down (Spangenburg 58). From here, Galileo discovered the principle ideas that would later become known as Newtons First Law of Motion. The 17th century brought a whole new collection of scientists with many new leaps in discovery. During the 17th century, scientists and philosophers like Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Christiaan Huygens, Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren and Edmond Halley made significant contributions to sundry areas of scientific thought. For the specific science of physics, it was Isaac Newton who was the predominant figure.Isaac Newton developed laws of motion and in general used many of the ideas from previous generations of scientists (like Archimedes, Galileo and Kepler) to generate many of the foundations for the physics that we still use today. Beyond pulling ideas from earlier scientists and expanding these ideas into concepts that were far more useful, Newton also began to do experiments with light. Newtons experimentswith light began with his discovery that white light was not the absence of the colored bands of light but rather the sum of these colored bands. Newton continued his exploration of the nature of light and began to set the stage for the physicists of the 19th and 20th centuries includ...
