Galileo
Galileo Galilei
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei
(15 February 1564, Pisa, Duchy of Florence, Italy – 8 January 1642, Arcetri, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy) (aged 77)
Nationality: Italy
Category: Scientists
Occupation: Physics, Astronomers
Unique distinction: The father of Modern Science, founder of modern physics and observational astronomy, the inventor of the astronomical telescope.
Gender: Male
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei
(15 February 1564, Pisa, Duchy of Florence, Italy – 8 January 1642, Arcetri, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy) (aged 77)
Nationality: Italy
Category: Scientists
Occupation: Physics, Astronomers
Unique distinction: The father of Modern Science, founder of modern physics and observational astronomy, the inventor of the astronomical telescope.
Gender: Male
Quotes:
1. And yet it moves (Eppur si muove).
2. Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.
3. We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.
4. All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
5. Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.
6. I give infinite thanks to God, who has been pleased to make me the first observer of marvelous things.
7. Count what is countable, measure what is measurable, and what is not measurable, make measurable.
8. In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
9. Mathematics is the key and door to the sciences.
10. Passion is the genesis of genius.
11. Doubt is the father of invention.
12. I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him
13. Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
14. Nature is relentless and unchangeable, and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons and actions are understandable to man or not.
15. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
1. And yet it moves (Eppur si muove).
2. Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.
3. We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.
4. All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
5. Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.
6. I give infinite thanks to God, who has been pleased to make me the first observer of marvelous things.
7. Count what is countable, measure what is measurable, and what is not measurable, make measurable.
8. In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
9. Mathematics is the key and door to the sciences.
10. Passion is the genesis of genius.
11. Doubt is the father of invention.
12. I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him
13. Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
14. Nature is relentless and unchangeable, and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons and actions are understandable to man or not.
15. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
Achievements and contributions:
Social and professional position: Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician philosopher and inventor.
The main contribution to (Best known for): Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher who was one of the founders of modern science and played a major role in the Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century.
The main contribution to (Best known for): Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher who was one of the founders of modern science and played a major role in the Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century.
Contributions to science:
Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher who was one of the founders of modern science and played a major role in the Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century.
By his investigation of natural laws, he laid the foundations for modern experimental science, and by the construction of astronomical telescopes, he greatly enlarged humanity’s vision and conception of the universe. Also, he gave a mathematical formulation to many physical laws.
Galileo’s main contributions to science include:
discovering the constancy of a pendulum’s swing, formulating the law of uniform acceleration of falling bodies; describing the true parabolic paths of cannonballs and other projectiles; coming up with the ideas behind Newton’s laws of motion; and confirming the Copernican theory.
By his investigation of natural laws, he laid the foundations for modern experimental science, and by the construction of astronomical telescopes, he greatly enlarged humanity’s vision and conception of the universe. Also, he gave a mathematical formulation to many physical laws.
Galileo’s main contributions to science include:
discovering the constancy of a pendulum’s swing, formulating the law of uniform acceleration of falling bodies; describing the true parabolic paths of cannonballs and other projectiles; coming up with the ideas behind Newton’s laws of motion; and confirming the Copernican theory.
Technology. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology: he invented a horse-powered pump to raise water building the first high-powered astronomical telescope, improving compass design.
Physics. While professor (1589-92) at the University of Pisa, he initiated his experiments concerning the laws of bodies in motion, which brought results so contradictory to the accepted teachings of Aristotle that strong antagonism was aroused. Galileo proved that objects with different masses fall at the same velocity. Galileo put forward the theory of hydrostatic balance and the theory of the centre of gravity of solid bodies.
Astronomy. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. The first to use a telescope to study the skies, he discovered (1609 – 10) that the surface of the Moon is irregular, that the Milky Way is composed of stars, and that Jupiter has the four largest satellites of Jupiter (Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, and Io). He observed and studied the oval shape of Saturn, the phases of Venus, and the spots on the sun.
Scientific methods mathematics. Galileo made original contributions to the science of motion through an innovative combination of experiments and mathematics.
Galileo unquestionably holds that science based on observation is the true source of knowledge of the physical world, as opposed to traditional authority and philosophical speculation.
He also advocates a becoming modesty concerning what we know about nature, in opposition to the dogmatic certainties of much late medieval thought. The conception of the world associated with modern science is frequently referred to as the Galilean worldview.
Physics. While professor (1589-92) at the University of Pisa, he initiated his experiments concerning the laws of bodies in motion, which brought results so contradictory to the accepted teachings of Aristotle that strong antagonism was aroused. Galileo proved that objects with different masses fall at the same velocity. Galileo put forward the theory of hydrostatic balance and the theory of the centre of gravity of solid bodies.
Astronomy. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. The first to use a telescope to study the skies, he discovered (1609 – 10) that the surface of the Moon is irregular, that the Milky Way is composed of stars, and that Jupiter has the four largest satellites of Jupiter (Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, and Io). He observed and studied the oval shape of Saturn, the phases of Venus, and the spots on the sun.
Scientific methods mathematics. Galileo made original contributions to the science of motion through an innovative combination of experiments and mathematics.
Galileo unquestionably holds that science based on observation is the true source of knowledge of the physical world, as opposed to traditional authority and philosophical speculation.
He also advocates a becoming modesty concerning what we know about nature, in opposition to the dogmatic certainties of much late medieval thought. The conception of the world associated with modern science is frequently referred to as the Galilean worldview.
Major works: Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger, 1610), Il saggiatore (The Assayer, 1623), Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo tolemaico, e copernicano (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, 1632), The Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (1638).
Career and personal life:
Origin: Galileo was born in Pisa (then part of the Duchy of Florence), Italy, the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei (1520- 1591), a famous lutenist and music theorist, and Giulia di Cosimo Ammannati (1538- 1620). His younger brother, Michelangelo was a composer and lutenist late Renaissance and early Baroque, who worked mainly in Germany and Poland.
Education: He then was educated in the Camaldolese Monastery at Vallombrosa, 35 km southeast of Florence. Although he seriously considered the priesthood as a young man, he enrolled for a medical degree at the University of Pisa at his father’s urging. He did not complete this degree but instead studied mathematics.
Career highlights: His invention of the hydrostatic balance (c. 1586) made him famous. In 1589 he published a treatise on the centre of gravity in solids, which won him the post of mathematics lecturer at the University of Pisa.
In 1591 his father died and he was entrusted with the care of his younger brother Michelagnolo. In 1592, he moved to the University of Padua, teaching geometry, mechanics, and astronomy until 1610. There, in 1609, having heard reports of a simple magnifying instrument put together by a lens-grinder in Holland, he constructed the first complete astronomical telescope.
Education: He then was educated in the Camaldolese Monastery at Vallombrosa, 35 km southeast of Florence. Although he seriously considered the priesthood as a young man, he enrolled for a medical degree at the University of Pisa at his father’s urging. He did not complete this degree but instead studied mathematics.
Career highlights: His invention of the hydrostatic balance (c. 1586) made him famous. In 1589 he published a treatise on the centre of gravity in solids, which won him the post of mathematics lecturer at the University of Pisa.
In 1591 his father died and he was entrusted with the care of his younger brother Michelagnolo. In 1592, he moved to the University of Padua, teaching geometry, mechanics, and astronomy until 1610. There, in 1609, having heard reports of a simple magnifying instrument put together by a lens-grinder in Holland, he constructed the first complete astronomical telescope.
Personal life:
At the age of 8, his family moved to Florence, but he was left in Pisa under the guardianship of Jacopo Borghini for two years.
Although a genuinely pious Roman Catholic, Galileo fathered three children out of wedlock with Marina Gamba. They had two daughters, Virginia in 1600 and Livia in 1601, and one son, Vincenzo, in 1606.
His acceptance of the Copernican system was rejected by the Catholic Church, and under threat of torture from the Inquisition, he publicly recanted his ” heretical” views. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest, continuing to write and conduct research even after going blind in 1637.
Galileo was a true Renaissance man, excelling at many different endeavours, including lute-playing and painting.
He died on 8 January 1642 in Arcetri.
Remains: Buried, Santa Croce Church, Florence, Italy.
Zest: There is an apocryphal story that Galileo dropped two balls of different masses simultaneously from the leaning tower of Pisa to demonstrate that bodies fall at the same rate.
It is said that at the age of 19, in the cathedral of Pisa, he timed the oscillations of a swinging lamp by means of his pulse beats and found the time for each swing to be the same, no matter what the amplitude of the oscillation. Thus he discovered the isochronal nature of the pendulum, which he verified by experiment.
A famous legend holds that Galileo, after making this public declaration about a motionless Earth, muttered, “Nevertheless, it does move.” The Vatican officially recognized the validity of Galileo’s work in 1993.
Although a genuinely pious Roman Catholic, Galileo fathered three children out of wedlock with Marina Gamba. They had two daughters, Virginia in 1600 and Livia in 1601, and one son, Vincenzo, in 1606.
His acceptance of the Copernican system was rejected by the Catholic Church, and under threat of torture from the Inquisition, he publicly recanted his ” heretical” views. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest, continuing to write and conduct research even after going blind in 1637.
Galileo was a true Renaissance man, excelling at many different endeavours, including lute-playing and painting.
He died on 8 January 1642 in Arcetri.
Remains: Buried, Santa Croce Church, Florence, Italy.
Zest: There is an apocryphal story that Galileo dropped two balls of different masses simultaneously from the leaning tower of Pisa to demonstrate that bodies fall at the same rate.
It is said that at the age of 19, in the cathedral of Pisa, he timed the oscillations of a swinging lamp by means of his pulse beats and found the time for each swing to be the same, no matter what the amplitude of the oscillation. Thus he discovered the isochronal nature of the pendulum, which he verified by experiment.
A famous legend holds that Galileo, after making this public declaration about a motionless Earth, muttered, “Nevertheless, it does move.” The Vatican officially recognized the validity of Galileo’s work in 1993.
