Galileo Galilei

Life
Galileo was born in Pisa (then part of the Duchy of
Florence), Italy, in 1564. He lived during Renaissance.
Galileo Galilei was a mathematics professor who made
pioneering observations of nature with long-lasting
implications for the study of physics. He also constructed a
telescope and supported the Copernican theory, which
supports a sun-centered solar system. Galileo was accused
twice of heresy by the church for his beliefs, and wrote
books on his ideas. He died in Arcetri, Italy, on January 8,
1642.

Why we must know about him

Galileo Galilei made major contributions to the fields of physics, astronomy, cosmology,
mathematics and philosophy. His scientific experiments changed view of the world.
Without him figuring out the world is round, we still would have thought the world is flat and
square and we wouldn't travel much because we would think we would fall.
Galileo also improved the telescope, military compass, and the thermometer. All of this
devices we still use today. The telescope we use to look at the beautiful stars above. The
military compass we use to know where is north, south, east, and west. To know where we go
or we are headed. The thermometer we use of course to figure out the temperature If we
didn't know how to figure out the temperature we wouldn't know what to wear for our
protection. If its hot warm, or freezing cold.
He introduced the human race to scientific experimentation aka the scientific method, at
the leaning tower of Pisa. Without this science does not exist.

Middle Ages vs Renaissance

The idea of community
distinguished the Middle ages.
People faced real threats from
famine, disease, and warfare
dangers that fostered
dependence on the community in
areas such as work and religion.
For instance, a medieval
craftsman belonged to a guild
that dictated all aspects of his
business. The idea was that all
craftsmen should make a good
living, but no one should do
substantially better than the
rest.

The Renaissance, on the other

hand, stressed the importance
of the individual and individual
talents. This idea, known as
individualism, is apparent in the
philosophy and art of the
period. In addition, while
medieval scholars had studied
ancient Greek and Roman
documents to learn about God
and Christianity, Renaissance
scholars studied them to
discover more about human
nature. This new interpretation
was known as humanism.

What did he believe?

Galileo pretended to be a believer but he was really a convinced
atheist. Galileo was convinced that Divine Providence could not
miss nor disregard anything to do with the government of human
affairs, read one of the info boards.
It was in Rome in 1633 that Galileo was forced to stand trial and
found vehemently suspect of heresy, mainly for his support of the
He believe in his vision and heliocentric view of the universe. By publicly renouncing his opinion,
managed to avoid the death penalty but was forced to spend
science, his theory about the Galileo
the rest of his life under house arrest. Despite all of this, by official
world differed than theories accounts, Galileo remained a committed Catholic right through to his
from Catholic Church.
death in 1642.

Galileo explored the world,

the space, he concluded that
the Earth revolves around
Sun.

Galileo Galilei
demonstrated his
believes

Galileo tried to show people what he learned about space to show people the
truth about the Earth. He improved the telescope through which people could see
the stars. Galileo also wrote a book about his discovery, for example (Historia e
dimostrazioni intorno alle Macchie Solari). Certainly the church did not like what
makes the a scientist and they wanted to get rid of Galilee that his science do not
progressed further.

Contributions
Contributions to Astronomy
In 1592 he began lecturing on mathematics at the Univ. of
Padua, where he remained for 18 years. There, in 1609,
having heard reports of a simple magnifying instrument put
together by a lens-grinder in Holland, he constructed the first
known complete astronomical telescope. Exploring the
heavens with his new aid, Galileo discovered that the moon,
shining with reflected light, had an uneven, mountainous
surface and that the Milky Way was made up of numerous
separate stars. He observed and studied the oval shape of
Saturn (the limitations of his telescope prevented the
resolving of Saturn's rings), the phases of Venus, and the
spots on the sun. His investigations confirmed his
acceptance of the Copernican theory of the solar system; but
he did not openly declare a doctrine so opposed to accepted
beliefs until 1613, when he issued a work on sunspots.

Contributions to Physics
His early studies, at the Univ. of Pisa, were in medicine, but
he was soon drawn to mathematics and physics. Galileo
soon became known through his invention of a hydrostatic
balance and his treatise on the center of gravity of solid
bodies. He found that bodies do not fall with velocities
proportional to their weights, but he did not arrive at the
correct conclusion (that the velocity is proportional to time
and independent of both weight and density) until perhaps
20 years later. The famous story in which Galileo is said to
have dropped weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa is
apocryphal. The actual experiment was performed by Simon
Stevin several years before Galileo's work. However, Galileo
did find that the path of a projectile is a parabola, and he is
credited with conclusions foreshadowing Newton's laws of
motion.

What he did to change peoples

understanding of the world?
He went against the wisdom and power of the church and proposed
that the Earth wasn't the center of the known Universe, the Sun
was.
He built the 1st telescope. Discovered Saturn and observed 4 large
moons orbiting Jupiter which gave him the idea that Earth was just a
planet like Jupiter.
He proved that different bodies of different size and mass
accelerate at the same speed, by dropping a large and small
cannon ball off the leaning tower of Pisa and they both hit the
ground at the same time.

Galileo made a big contribution

to science and its achievements
and inventions have helped
people to develop technique
and explore the universe.
Galileo is an outstanding and
important person in history, and
we should learned about him.

Thank you