Metronome

Ever hear of a metronome?

What a cool name! It sounds like it might be the name of a Transformer, or maybe a place where gladiatorial combat takes place, but metronomes are pretty cool in their own right.

Let me set the stage by traveling back to the time of Galileo, during the 16th century. Galileo was a true polymathic titan, not only interested in lots of cutting edge science, but also contributing to several fields in major ways.

Galileo observed the motion of astronomical bodies, and compared them to terrestrial objects falling here on Earth. This early hint that gravity was universal was contrary to the conventional wisdom that the celestial bodies followed different rules than things here on this planet. The further he went along with his studies, the more Galileo began to rock our understanding of the universe.

2000 years earlier, Aristotle had asserted that bigger things fell faster than smaller things. Galileo showed this wasn’t true, and noted that you could really see this…