GALILEO’S EXPERIMENTS

(a) Conservative Force :

A force is said to be conservative if the amount of work
done in moving an object against that force is
independent on the path. One important example of
conservative force is the gravitational force. It means
that amount of work done in moving a body against
gravity from location A to location B is the same
whichever path we may follow in going from A to B. This
is illustrated in figure.
Experiment 1 :
It was observed by Galileo that when a ball is rolled
down on an inclined frictionless plane its speed
increases, whereas if it is rolled up an inclined
frictionless plane its speed decreases .If it is rolled on
a horizontal frictionless plane the result must be
between the cases describe above i.e. the speed
should remain constant. It can be explain as :

A force is conservative if the total work done by the

force on an object in one complete round is zero,
i.e. when the object moves around any closed path v’
v
(returning to its initial position).

A force is conservative if there is no change in kinetic v’ = v

energy in one complete round. KE = 0
moving down : speed increases moving up : speed
This definition illuminates an important aspect of a decreases moving horizontal : speed remains constant
conservative force viz. Work done by a conservative
Experiments 2 :
force is recoverable. Thus in figure, we shall have to
do mgh amount of work in taking the body from A to B. When a ball is released on the inner surface of a
However, when body is released from B, we recover smooth hemisphere, it will move to the other side and
mgh of work. reach the same height before coming to rest
momentarily. f the hemisphere is replaced by a surface
Other examples of conservative forces are spring force,
shown in figure(b) in order to reach the same height
electrostatic force etc. the ball will have to move a larger distance.
(b) Non-Conservative Force :
A force is non-conservative if the work done by that force
on a particle moving between two points depends on
h h
the path taken between the points.
The force of friction is an example of non-conservative
(a) (b)
force. Let us illustrate this with an instructive example.
Suppose we were to displace a book between two points
on a rough horizontal surface (such as a table). If the
book is displaced in a straight line between the two
points, the work done by friction is simply FS where :
F = force of friction ; v v
S = distance between the points.
(c)
However, if the book is moved along any other path
between the two points (such as a semicircular path), If the other side is made horizontal, the ball will never
stop because it will never be able to reach the same
the work done by friction would be greater than FS.
height, it means its speed will not decrease. It will
Finally, if the book is moved through any closed path,
have uniform velocity on the horizontal surface. Thus, if
the work done by friction is never zero, it is always
unbalanced forces do not act on a body, the body will
negative. Thus the work done by a non-conservative
either remain at rest or will move with a uniform velocity.
force is not recoverable, as it is for a conservative force. It will remain unaccelerated.

 Newton concluded the idea suggested by Galileo and

was formulated in the laws by Newton.

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