Galileo Galilei Case

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei is an Italian astronomer, physicist, philosopher, and mathematician. He ranks with Archimedes, Newton, and Einstein as one of the greatest scientists of all time. His discoveries, made with the crudest of equipment, were brilliant examples of scientific deduction. Galileo's studies of natural laws laid the groundwork for the experimental scientists who followed him. Galileo was born in Pisa, the son of a musician who planned a medical career for his son. Galileo wanted to please his father and study medicine however his passion was math and science.

Galileo constructed the first telescope used for astronomical observations; the observations he made supported Copernicus' theory that the sun is the center of the solar system. In physics, Galileo discovered the principles of motion followed by swinging pendulums, falling bodies, and flying projectiles. Galileo used his heartbeat to time the period of a pendulum. He realized that a pendulum could be used as a standard of time for a clock (Rose 2004). Pendulum clocks are still sold today, more than three hundred years after their invention.

Galileo conducted experiments on gravity that brought him to public attention. In 1589, he became a lecturer on mathematics at the University of Pisa, and began his studies of falling bodies. According to legend, he dropped objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to prove his theory that bodies fall at the same speed and with the same acceleration regardless of their weight and size. He also demonstrated that projectiles follow a parabolic path. These discoveries were contrary to the teachings of the ancient Greek scientist and philosopher Aristotle, many of whose ideas had for centuries been accepted without question. Galileo aroused such opposition that in 1951 he was forced to resign from the university (Rose 2004).

The next year Galileo obtained a professorship in mathematics at the University of Padua, where he remained for 18 years. This was a period of successful research, acclaim, and prosperity for Galileo. In 1609, Galileo received news of the invention, in Flanders, of a device that made a distant objects appear larger. He immediately set out to build such a device for himself. The final result was a 32-power refracting telescope, with which he made series of major discoveries (Poupard 2005). He found by observation that the moon shone only from reflected light; that the Milky Way was formed of a multitude of stars; and that the planet Jupiter was circled by several moons. His discoveries caused great excitement among astronomers; he was besieged with orders for telescopes.

In 1610, Galileo left Padua for Florence to become official mathematician and philosopher to Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici. By the end of the year his telescopic discoveries included the rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus, and sun spots. His observations clearly confirmed