The article starts off by describing the importance and significance of the pendulum. Basically, the instrument changed the way the time was measured. "Competent time measurement was a requirement for modern science and the pendulum enabled this to happen". Not only did the pendulum help with time, but also with the study of navigation. It helped us to create latitude and longitude and guide our ways through the waters. The navigators then used latitude and longitude along with the position of the sun to find their location. But once the world was mapped and we knew where we were, we had to somehow figure out how to keep time. Things at the time were pretty accurate but not precise, and with time keeping things have to be 100% correct. Galileo knew this problem could be solved using the pendulum. Now, Galileo's laws and theories are taught and acknowledged in classrooms.
This article basically used Galileo's involvement with the pendulum showed how science is very often influenced by social and economic problems.
I liked how you realized that this involvement showed "how science is very often influenced by social and economic problems." I hadn't yet considered that this paper and experiment demonstrated this lesson, but it is one that should be valued and not forgotten. Many separate science and the "real world" forgetting that science IS our reality. EVerything that happens from day to day is because of science, and these happenings are often unnoticed and seemingly insignificant. Often times, some of the most important discoveries in the scientific world are discovered because of a problem that seems unrelated.
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