Galileo Galilei and Computer Physics: The Interesting Story of the Development of the Leaning Tower of Pisa Simulation

Once, in the course "Mathematical Models of Physical Reality" I suggested to the students to "play Galileo". That is, to repeat his natural experiments with falling bodies and determine the value of the acceleration of gravity from the experiments. According to the generally accepted legend, the "experimental setup" for one famous experiment of Galileo was the world-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, approximately 50 meters high. Photograph of the "l…