在比萨大教堂里,伽利略正在注视着一台摆动的烛架,这是教堂司事点蜡烛时使它摆动起来的。随着烛架慢慢地将要停下来,连续的摆动越来越小了。“每一次摆动的时间变短了吗?”伽利略思量着。没有秒表,伽利略就决定用数自己脉博的方法测定连续摆动一次的时间。这使他很吃惊,因为他发现,尽管摆幅越来越小,但其摆动的周期却仍然完全相同。 In Pisa Cathedral, Galileo is looking at a swinging candle holder, which is rocked by the church chief lighting candles. As the candleholder is about to stop slowly, the continuous wobbles become smaller and smaller. “Did each swing time get shorter?” Galileo looked. Without a stopwatch, Galileo decides to measure the time of a continuous wobble with a few pulses of his own. This surprised him because he found that although the swing was getting smaller and smaller, the swing period was still the same.