Galileo Galilei is one of the most well-known scientists of the Renaissance. In Italy, he made contributions to the fields of astronomy, mathematics, and physics. He is known as the “Father of the Scientific Method", the method of testing a theory with experiments that is still in use today. He invented the first practical telescope, discovered inertia, and designed a way to build a pendulum clock. Galileo Galilei's wide-spanning interests in astronomy, mathematics, and physics changed scientific thinking and...
Galileo was interested in a wide range of subjects. “As a teenager, Galileo was tempted to go into a monastery”. (Hart-Davis 82) Sixty years after Galileo decided not to join a monastery, Galileo was put under trial by the Catholic Church for heresy, and was sentenced to life imprisonment (reduced to permenant house arrest). Galileo’s father, Vincenzo Ammanati, a musician, encouraged his son to go to medical school. Galileo attended medical school at the University of Pisa, though he ended up spending more time studying mathematics. While at the University of Pisa, Galileo contributed a pulse meter to medicine. The pulse meter had an adjustable string that could be adjusted to swing in time with a patient’s heartbeat, and a scale based on the legnth of the pendulem string would tell the doctor how fast the heart was beating. Galileo’s pulse meter invention was stolen by medical authorities, but Galileo later had inventions that he received credit for. (Hart-Davis 82, 83)
In 1590, Galileo would begin his study of motion, disproving that the weight of an object affected the object’s acceleration. Galileo designed an experiment where he rolled balls down a sloped incline with smooth grooves for the balls to roll dow...
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...A gap appeared at the top of the tube of mercury, and that gap was a vacuum. Antoher inventtion that Galileo helped with was the invention of the pendulum clock.
As a medical student, Galileo had realized that a pendulum would be a good way to keep time. Galileo designed the first pendulum clock late in his life. When he did design the clock, he was blind, so he could not build the clock, and when his son did build the clock, the clock did not work very well. The first sucessful pendulum clock was built (and patented) by Christaan Huygens. Huygens, a Dutch scientist, made many other important contributions to the field of science, such as a light wave theory and built the most powerful telescope of his time. Pendulum clocks were the most accurate clocks until the 20th century, andthe standard time for the United States was based on pendulum clocks in the early 1900s.
Galileo’s contributions to the science of Physics and Astronomy were many. His conviction was legendary. His willingness to suffer for his beliefs exemplify true courage in the name of truth, and has inspired others to venture intellectual independence from the Church‘s creeds, edicts, and proclamations. Perhaps these contributions led to the call for an investigation into Galileo's conviction, eventually calling for its reversal, in 1979 by Pope John Paul II. But regardless of his standing in the annals of the Catholic church he will always be the man who began the separation of science and religion.
Galileo Galilei (Physicist, Scientist, Mathematician) – He is the 7th most influential people in history. He was often called as Galileo and was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Dutche of Florence, Italy. Galileo is an Italian physicist, engineer, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher. During the Renaissance Period, he played an important part on the scientific revolution. He is called as the Father of Physics, Science and Observational Astronomy. Galileo’s father was named Vicenzo Galilei who was a composer, music theorist and a lutenist. And his mother was named Giulia Ammannati.
After reading this letter I feel that Galileo had a very opinionated outlook on life and was heavily involved in a struggle for freedom of inquiry. Galileo was a person who had many strong beliefs and would not let people or a document have a say in what he believes.
Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist, often referred to as “the father of modern physics”. He was one of the inventors of the telescope and a strong proponent of Copernicanism. Galileo used his invention to make astronomical observations which supported Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe. These discoveries led to a fierce dispute, because they contradicted the theory which was prevalent at the time – that the universe followed a geocentric model, a theory, which had been accepted by the Catholic Church. To address this dispute, Galileo wrote a letter to Tuscany’s Grand Duchess Christina, in which he presented his position on the relation between science and religion, stating that the Bible does not contradict science.
In order to distinguish between religion and natural philosophy, Galileo appealed to the centuries old sentiment of observation. If people were able to reproduce or procure their own instrument such as the telescope, they could simply observe the craters and shadows of the moon themselves. People would be able to observe the change in the appearance of the lunar surface in connection to how it was struck by the suns rays (Biagoli 2006, 106). In a broad sense, Galileo was able to build what we would call the basic elements of science today, validity and replicability, which allowed him to divide religion and
Galileo was a mathematician and a natural philosopher, who converted Copernicanism, which states that the earth revolved around the sun, into philosophy and the world’s true nature. By introducing new knowledge and using science to prove existing theories, he had caused a revolution by changing how people perceive the world during the last few hundred years and to doubt the authority of the Church, so as to spur on more people to confront the Church’s interpretations of the Bible and generate more knowledge.
Galileo Galilei, (1564-1642) an Italian mathematician and astronomer, won the respect and admiration of many people of his time because of his inventions. He constructed a military compass, an instrument for measuring the expansion of liquids, and one of the early telescopes with which he discovered Jupiter's satellites, irregularities on the surface of the moon, star clusters in the milky way and spots on the surface of the sun. He was initially skeptical of Copernicus' theory however his observations and experiments affirmed his diagram of the universe. Critics attacked Galilei's findings. They said that his "discoveries" were ridiculous to believe and that it was only is imagination or dreams. Galilei wrote a letter to Dowager Grand Duchess trying to reconcile his astronomical observations with the Bible.
university milieu, and in fact his theories were not published until the time of his death.
In 1610 he was one of the first people to use the telescope to observe
Galileo used this great invention to report astronomical facts such as the moon is cover with craters instead of being smooth, the Milky Way is composed of millions of stars, and Jupiter have four moons. Perhaps the most famous discovery is the Earth revolves around the Sun and the Earth is not the center of the universe (even though he was discredited at the time).
Another important individual who drove history was the Italian astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei. Galileo discovered something so important that it changed the selfish perspective that humans were the center of the universe and led to the growth of human knowledge. Utilizing mathematics and a telescope he had developed, Galileo observed that the planets revolved around the sun and not the Earth. This was a significant discovery because not only did it contradict what the church had taught, it also showed that the universe was not what it seemed. With this truth uncovered, many people began to fascinate over the universe. This triggered people to begin studying space extensively and eventually lead to present day space exploration. Galileo also left a lasting impression upon many great minds, such as Sir Isaac Newton, who used Galileo's research and theories to further his own studies such as the physical laws, and their properties.
Galileo was the first of six children born to Vincenzo Galilei, who was musician and music theorist. In 1583, Galileo entered the University of Pisa to study medicine.
In 1410 the first portable clock was developed in Florence, Italy by Filippo Brunelleschi. Before this mechanic clocks were large, fixed devices. The spring-driven clock made it possible to always know the time. Later improvements were made by Galileo who invented the pendulum in 1581. The pendulum allowed clocks to be made that were much more accurate. “Although Galileo is credited with inventing the pendulum, his design for a clock was not built before his death” (About.com).
Over the years, there have been many more important figures in astronomy. One extraordinary astronomer was Galileo Galilei, who invented the first refractor telescope in which light is bent to enlarge an image of the sky (“Galileo Project”). The next great astronomer to follow him was Isaac Newton. Newton had made a great amount of contributions to astronomy during his life. He further proved that the Earth was not the center of the universe and he also invented the Newtonian reflector telescope which is still used today in observatories.
In 1609 the telescope was invented and Galileo began making his own lenses for better telescopes and then started looking at the sky. In December and January (1609-1610) it is said that he made more discoveries that changed the world that anyone has made before or since. He wrote a book called the “Starry Messenger”, and said that there were mountains on the moon, the Milky Way was made up of many stars, and there were small bodies in orbit around Jupiter. He used his mathematical skills to calculate the motions of these bodies around Jupiter. In 1610 he started looking at Saturn and discovered the rings, and the phases of Saturn (just like our moon’s phases).