title: Experimental history: swinging pendulums and melting shellac.
abstract: Four hundred years ago Galileo Galilei aimed a telescope at the sky. He revolutionized astronomy. Equally revolutionary were his experiments in physics. Unlike his astronomical observations the experiments remain difficult to understand and replicate even today. Two centuries after Galileo, Augustin Coulomb demonstrated experimentally the law of electrostatic force. It has never been successfully replicated. Yet both Galileo and Coulomb were exquisite experimentalists. The fact is that revolutionary experiments in physics are never finished. They are open for investigation for generations to come.
authors.affiliation: 1017 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. pap7@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Palmieri
mesh_terms: D006112:Gravitation; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D010825:Physics / Q000266:history*; D012116:Resins, Plant / Q000266:history; D055672:Static Electricity
chemical_list: D012116:Resins, Plant; C003934:shellac