Painting - <I>Velocity on Inclined Planes (Galileo)</I>
date: label: date made
content: 1966
name: label: referenced
content: Galilei, Galileo
label: painter
content: Johnson, Crockett
notes: label: Description
content: This oil painting is based on a figure from Galileo Galilee's <I>Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences</I> (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, <I>The World of Mathematics</I>, 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: The work is # 42 in the series. It is signed: CJ66. Compare to paintings #96 (1979.1093.64) and #71 (1979.1093.46).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Crockett Johnson
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content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ruth Krauss in memory of Crockett Johnson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.1093.30
label: catalog number
content: 1979.1093.30
label: accession number
content: 1979.1093
objectType: label: Object Name
content: painting
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: masonite (substrate material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (frame material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (frame material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 84.3 cm x 126 cm x 2.5 cm; 33 3/16 in x 49 5/8 in x in