Galileo's Pendulum

And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky Whereunder crawling cooped we live and die, Life not your hands to It for help—for It As impotently moves as you or I. –Omar Khayyám (Edward FitzGerald’s paraphrase) Omar Khayyám (1048-1131) is best known in the West for his poetry; ironically, the most famous “translation” of his…