Pisa

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=165 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0018dfc3.jpg"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0088e5d0.png" border=0 width="142" height="93" ALT="Wu Shi Dancing Dragon" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com"><U><B>Home</B></U></A><A HREF="http://www.dakare.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com"><U><B> (Main Site)</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/Movies/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/Movies/"><U><B>Dakare Movie Clips</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="med_wx_resources.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Med Weather Resources"><U><B>Weather Med & Mid East</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/cruising.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/cruising"><U><B>Cruising </B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/Cruising1999/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/Cruising1999/index"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">1997-1999</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/Cruising2000/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/Cruising2000/"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">2000</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/Cruising2000/2001.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/Cruising2000/2001."><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">2001</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/Cruising2002/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/Cruising2002/"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">2002</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/index.ht"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Med Cruising</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/AtlanticCrossing/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/AtlanticCrossing/"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Summer 2003</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/winter0304.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/winter03"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Winter 03/04</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/cruising_2004.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/cruising"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Summer 2004</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/winter_0405.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/MedCruise/winter_0"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Winter 04/05</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/levante/levante.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/levante/levante.ht"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Summer 2005</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="winter_05_06.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Winter 05/06"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Winter 05/06</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/Summer2006/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/Summer2006/"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Summer 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/CY2007/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/CY2007/"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">CY2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com/CY2008/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com/CY2008/"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">CY2008</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0028dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Piza</B></FONT><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Med Cruising"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="arles.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Arles"><U>Arles</U></A>   |   <A HREF="cotedazur.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CoteDAzur"><U>CoteDAzur</U></A>   |   <A HREF="florence.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Florence"><U>Florence</U></A>   |   <A HREF="chianti.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chianti Classico Region"><U>Chianti Classico Region</U></A>   |   <B>Pisa</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>(Click on Image for a Virtual Tour)</B></div> <div> <A HREF="Resource-387/pisa.mov" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Resource-387/pisa.mov"><U><IMG SRC="23c40f00.png" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> Use your mouse to walk around the picture</div> <bR> <div> <B>Virtual Pisa Tour - Campo del Miracoli (Field of Miracles)</B></div> <div> <B>(Click on the image above to download a virtual tour of Pisa.  Then drag your mouse across the image and translate/rotate through the Leaning Tower, The Duomo, Baptistry and the other sites located in the 360 degree field of view.  Source NOVA Online.)</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Why go to Pisa?  Going to Pisa is more than seeing the Leaning Tower, Duomo, Baptistry, the Museo dell'Opera and many of the other museums located there.  I think the reason to go there and climb all 297 steps (depending upon who you want to believe - we didn't count them, we were breathing too hard<G>) of the tower is to celebrate, first hand, the momentus occasion of the beginning of knowledge as we understand and use it today, thanks to Galileo Galilei.  </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="23f7aa30.jpg" border=0 width="122" height="163" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Galileo Galilei</div> <bR> <div> Truly, Galileo Galilei is credited with the introducing the first form of analytical science by applying mathematical methods to understanding gravity.  At age 25, Galileo was appointed professor at the University of Pisa, and at that point in time is said to have carried out experiments from the Leaning Tower to show that heavy bodies do not fall faster than light ones, in contrats to Aristotle who expounded the opposite.</div> <bR> <div> Galileo is presummed to have dropped different items off the top of the leaning tower to witness the affects of gravity and then it was back to his lab to try and understand and explain the results.  He used an inclined plane to develop the first model of the gravitational law which he determined to be x=at*t, where "a" was a constant used to adjust the results for the units of measurement and "t" is time (t*t should be interpreted as time squared.)  It was Isaac Newton, in the mid 18th century, who refined this law to its current form, x=gt*t/2 (Where g is the gravitational constant ~ 32ft/sec/sec) after inventing a subject of much dread to many univeristy students, ...calculus.</div> <bR> <div>   <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>An absolutely wonderful interactive graphics model,</B></I></FONT> showing 1)items being dropped off the leaning tower, 2)from a mast of a sailboat (Although this is an example concerning gravity working on a sailboat, it is also a very good demonstration of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity) and 3)an experiment showing how Galileo actually used his incline plane to derive the gravity equation.  It is worth a visit to the NOVA Online website<A HREF="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pisa/galileo.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pisa/galile"><U> to see this interactive model. </U></A> </div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="23e44320.gif" border=0 width="68" height="50" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the Campanile or bell tower for Pisa's cathedral, the Duomo di Pisa. It was built to stand vertically but began leaning soon after construction started in August, 1173. Within three years of its start, construction stopped, because it was sinking in its soil. Five years later the building was stopped once again, because the tower tilted about 0.2 degrees. No work was done for about one century. This all happened because of the soil. In 1250 the architects tried to adjust the lean. In 1272 the tower began to lean the other way, south. Once again they tried to adjust the lean to the north making a "s" shape. Benito Mussolini put in cement to straighten the lean. This failed.  The on again, off again building occurred 3 times.  Finally, in 1990 the Tower was closed for repair.  We were lucky enough to be there after it was reopened and we were able to climb the stairs all the way to the top.  </div> <bR> <div> The height of the tower is 55 metres from the ground. It was originally designed to be three times as high, but as you know, it never quite made it that far.  Its weight is estimated at 15K tonnes. The current inclination is about 10%.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Some scenes from Pisa </B></div> <bR> <div>  <img src="HTMLobj-573/aniGif.gif" alt="Pisa" border="0" align="bottom" width="300" height="225">  </div> <bR> <div> More pictures from the Campo del Miracoli, the top of the Leaning tower, and inside many of the monuments</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="camper_trip.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Camper Trip"><U><I><B>Return to Camper Trip</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="winter0304.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Winter in Barcelona"><U><I><B>Return to Barcelona</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <I><B>Return to </B></I><A HREF="cruising.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cruising (1995 to the Present)"><U><I><B>Cruising</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <I><B>Return to </B></I><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Med Cruising"><U><I><B>Med Cruising</B></I></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.dakare.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dakare.com"><U> <img src="HTMLobj-1347/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="88" height="39">  </U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>