Painting - Velocity on Inclined Planes (Galileo)

This oil painting is based on a figure from Galileo Galilee's Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (1638), Book 3. Here Galileo discussed the time of descent of bodies rolling without friction along inclined planes. He argued that if from the highest point in a vertical circle there be drawn any inclined planes meeting the circumference of the circle, the times of descent along these chords are equal to one another. This painting shows two inclined planes drawn from the highest point of a vertical circle, with a ball moving along each chord. Crockett Johnson probably became familiar with Galileo's figure by examining the translation of part of his book published in James R. Newman, The World of Mathematics, vol. 2, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956, p. 751–52. This volume was in Crockett Johnson's library. The figure on p. 752 is annotated.

The painting has a gray background and a metal and wooden frame. It shows two superimposed triangles (inclined planes), one reddish purple, and the other smaller one blue. Both of these triangles are inscribed in the same white circular arc. A light purple circle is shown near the bottom of the purple triangle, and a light blue circle near the bottom of the blue triangle.

The work is # 42 in the series. It is signed: CJ66. Compare to paintings #96 (1979.1093.64) and #71 (1979.1093.46).

Currently not on view