Galileo’s thought experiment suggests that no net force is needed to sustain the uniform motion of the marble; an unbalanced (external) force is only required to change its motion.
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If the right-side plane were ultimately made horizontal, the marble would continue to travel forever, trying to reach the same height from which it was released, assuming no friction is present.
As the right-side plane’s slope is gradually decreased, the marble travels further distances to reach the same height from which it was released.
From Galileo’s experiment, it can be inferred that in the absence of friction and other forces, the marble will conserve its mechanical energy, achieving the same height on the opposite side if the inclinations are equal, illustrating the principle of ...
If the angle of inclination of the right-side plane is gradually decreased, the marble will climb up to a lesser height compared to its initial height on the left side, because it will travel a longer horizontal distance before coming ...
If the inclinations of the planes on both sides are equal, the marble will climb the same distance on the right side that it covered while rolling down the left side.
Galileo argued that when the marble is released from the left, it would roll down the slope and go up on the opposite side to the same height from which it was released.
The velocity of the marble increases as it rolls down an inclined plane due to the unbalanced force of gravity acting on it.
Galileo deduced that objects on an inclined plane, when no external force acts on them, move with a constant speed. This observation laid the foundation for understanding motion and inertia, highlighting that no force is needed to maintain constant velocity.
If the unbalanced force is removed completely, the object would continue to move with the velocity it has acquired up to that point.