section_path: Scientific contributions/Physics/Falling bodies/Delft tower experiment
section_name: Delft tower experiment
paragraph_text: Delft tower experiment
  
  In 1586, Simon Stevin (commonly known as Stevinus) and Jan Cornets de Groot dropped lead balls from the Nieuwe Kerk in the Dutch city of Delft. The experiment established that objects of identical size, but different masses, fall at the same speed. While the Delft tower experiment had been a success, it was not conducted with the same scientific rigour that later experiments were. Stevin was forced to rely on audio feedback (caused by the spheres impacting a wooden platform below) to deduce that the balls had fallen at the same speed. The experiment was given less credence than the more substantive work of Galileo Galilei and his famous Leaning Tower of Pisa thought experiment of 1589.