Galileo's speedometer: an approach to the concept of instantaneous velocity

TL;DR

This paper proposes a teaching method based on Galileo's historical concept of instantaneous speed to improve students' understanding of the velocity concept, avoiding complex calculus notions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel pedagogical approach rooted in historical ideas, offering an alternative to limit-based definitions for teaching instantaneous velocity.

Findings

Enhances student comprehension of instantaneous velocity.

Provides a historical perspective to physics education.

Offers a practical teaching tool based on Galileo's ideas.

Abstract

Difficulties presented by students on the concept of instantaneous velocity are well known. This is in part due to instantaneous speed being often defined in terms of the notion of mathematical limit, which may not be clear to many students in introductory physics courses. In this work we present a complementary teaching proposal that can help students to get a better grasp of instantaneous velocity. The approach is based on Galileo's ideas on instantaneous speed, which he borrowed from the Mertonian scholars much before infinitesimal calculus was developed.