Galileo Galilei was a teacher, astronomer, philosopher and physicist who is now referred to as “the Father of the Scientific Revolution.” “The scientific revolution refers to a period of time of great advancement in the sciences that challenged the traditional beliefs about mankind's place and relationship with the universe held by religious orders” (Bellis). Born in Pisa Italy on February 15, 1564 Galileo was the son of Vincenzo Galilei, musician and mathematician. He was the first of six children and began his education at the age of eight at the Camaldolese Monastery at Vallombrosa. Bringing a close connection to the Christian religion he became a lutenist. However, his father immediately removed him from the monastery and insisted that …show more content…
He later received the position of chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa where he worked for eighteen years. It was during his position that he began to research free-fall and stated that all objects would fall at the same rate of speed. A statement that contradicted previous beliefs and Galileo’s findings were disproven by the Aristotelians. During 1586 Galileo made a name for himself by publishing an essay that described his invention of hydrostatic balance, when fluid is at rest. He was then appointed the position of mathematician and philosopher by the Grand Duke of Tuscany and continued his investigation of nature. Later he established his laws of free-fall, some of which still exist today. His laws of projectiles later formulated Newton’s laws. Galileo studies created concerns from the church that led to the trials against Galileo because of his strong support of the Copernican theory. His belief was that the earth revolved around the sun, the church however, disagreed and accused him of violation. His controversial work was challenged by the church creating a tension that is a well-known as his …show more content…
Before the age of twenty he had made great observations in mechanics. He observed, a chandelier swinging and when time with his heartbeat he noticed that the swings in the chandelier were in larger or smaller arcs but whether it was swinging back or forth it took the same amount of time. This observation prompted Galileo to being his experiments, validating his theories and providing factual evidence to back his notions. During 1595 Galileo had taken a compass design invented by Niccolo Tartaglia and Guidobaldo del Monte and by 1598 he had improved it making it more accurate he had created a geometric and military compass by today’s standards. Not only this but with the use of Galileo’s flotation principles he invented a thermoscope which was later used as a basis for the modern day thermometer. Another of his experiments was an attempt to measure the speed of light. In which he and an assistant stood on two hilltops, holding a lantern with a shudder. When one opened the shutter the other would open his shutter. This took place with a distance of less than a mile and Galileo did not detect a delay in the time greater that when they were only meters apart. Although there was no conclusion to this experiment, Galileo thought that the distance between the hilltops and that perhaps the distance was too small for a worthy measurement. Galileo
Galileo once stated, “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” Galileo Galilei was a well-known astronomer and scientist during the Scientific Revolution, a time period where thought and reason the old philosophies, who made many important contributions to astronomy and physics. As a major contribution to astronomy, Galileo proved the heliocentric theory, a theory which stated that the sun was the center of the universe and all objects moved around it. He also developed new physics theories which included the universal law of acceleration and created new inventions to enhance daily human life. Galileo Galilei was an important individual who influenced the advancement of science and expanded
In 1633 the Vatican put a famous astronomer under house arrest. His name was Galileo Galeli, and he was one of the most talented scientists to ever walk the face of the earth. Galileo was an early pioneer in the field of physics and astronomy, and played an important role in the scientific revolution of the 17th century.
Galileo Galilei was a very influential and controversial astronomer, scientist, mathematician, teacher, and physicist. His life began in the sixteenth century and ended in the seventeenth, in which he penned several books that supported the Copernican theory of a heliocentric solar system. In the words of Drake S. (1957) “... the works of Galileo are well written, and throw light upon the origins of modern science…”(Pg. 2) Although Galileo was soon deemed a heretic by the Roman Catholic church, he continued diligently challenging Aristotelian thought and doctrine and expressing his support of the Copernican theory. As he continued to make discoveries that supported this theory, the church continued to label him as a heretic, and eventually
Another important figure in the Scientific Revolution was Galileo Galilei. He was an Italian born professor of mathematics who had a great interest in the workings of the universe. Galileo served as a professor at the University of Padua, and it was during this time that he began to question the accuracy of the Churches representation of the world. Galileo’s approach towards knowledge was much different then the afore mentioned Copernicus. Where as Copernicus presented his finding to the mercy of the church, Galileo wrote his conclusions and left the Roman Catholic Church interpret them as they chose. The very nature of his findings pitted him as an opponent of the church.
Scientifically, Galileo will be remembered for invention of the telescope, which allowed astronomers, sailors and other view the heavens and seas, which fed their own theories. He used his own invention to discover the four moons of Jupiter, the mountains and craters of the moon, and sunspots. His work on falling objects led to gravitational studies and mathematical theorems which are on a basic level, physics. Experimentation was used as a means to prove the laws of science along with the mathematical theories. Math, according to Galileo, was the only infallible form of logic. If a mathematical law could be formed from an event, then it was a logical, rational event. His breaking from the Catholic Church, voicing his findings and staying with his convictions broke the traditional way of thinking that the Church was the end all and be all of all things. In the end, he was proven right for most of his beliefs and vindicated for his suppression.
Galileo was the first European to make systematic observations of the heavens through his improved invention of the telescope. Through his telescope, Galileo made a series of discoveries. Galileo’s observations demolished among the traditional cosmology of what the universe seemed to be composed of. Not only did Galileo make astonishing discoveries, but he was also offered a new position from Grand Duke Cain II of Florence, as his court mathematician. During this time, Galileo was told that he could continue to discuss Copernicanism, as long as he would maintain everything as mathematical supposition, and not as facts. Due to the Inquisitions response, the church attacked the Copernican system since it threaten the Scripture and its’ entire conception of the universe. The new system rose'd much uncertainty that seemed as prudent to simply condemn it. In 1633, Galileo was found guilty of teaching the condemned Copernican system and was then forced to be placed under house arrest. He spent the remaining eight years of life studying mechanics. The principal of motion was the one of the problems that fell under the heading of mechanics. At the end, Galileo made two contributions to the problem of motion. He demonstrated by experimenting uniform force to accelerate
Galileo fought on the controversial findings of Copernicus while also furthering his research. The source also brings up Galileo’s background in mathematics and how it helped him prove his theories. Of course, there is a detailed part that highlights the arguments against him and the church. The article separates Galileo’s discoveries into phases. From discovering the moon was round to discovering Venus revolved around the sun.
During Galileo’s years, he worked very hard to make advancements to his telescope and his microscope (Armento et al. 352). He also worked very hard to prove Copernicus's theory that we revolve around the sun, which was not previously believed by the church or people of the era. (Armento et al. 355). Because Galileo tried to prove this, he was put up against the Inquisition on April 12th, 1633. He was later put under house arrest for the rest of his life (Armento et al. 355).
At the age of six, his family moved from Pisa to Florence where he attended the Florentine Academy of Art and Design (“Medici: Godfather of the Renaissance”). When he was finally of age to attend University, he moved back to Pisa and went to the University of Pisa. While he was at the University of Pisa, Galileo made his groundbreaking discoveries of how to accurately keep time. With the new power of accurately keeping track of time, Galileo was able to create the first pendulum clocks. Although he did not get his degree from the University of Pisa, he still became ultra-successful in the fields of physics and astronomy. His second major discovery was in physics, it was a discovery that proved Aristotle wrong. Aristotle was a physicist and philosopher who hypothesized that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. Galileo discovered that was not a correct assertion; objects of different weights fall at equal rates. A common myth is that Galileo did his revolutionary research by dropping balls of different
Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist born on the 15th of February 1564 in Pisa, Italy. Galileo had a great passion for science, his main areas being physics, astronomy, mathematics and engineering. Galileo is often referred to as the “father of modern observational astronomy” and the “father of modern science”.
In summer of 1609, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) pointed his revolutionary astronomical telescope to the heavens under the starry Venetian sky; his greatly important observations unveiled the mysteries of universe and would end up changing the course of scientific thought forever. Galileo lived in an age where there was much status quo, when scientists and philosophers would accept scientific and religious doctrine that had stood for hundreds, if not thousands, of years instead of challenging the accepted knowledge in favor of intellectual progress. Galileo’s scientific methods lead to significant discoveries explaining key scientific laws, such as the
The scientific revolution was one of the greatest times in the 16th century and its ideals have proved to last to this very day. The great minds of the scientific revolution brought forth new concepts and vastly complex while each one is rooted in a basic fundamental. Some of these ideas and fundamentals were of the outside world, aka space, the planet and the stars, motion, and physics. One of the best minds of this time was, of course, Galileo Galilei. This great astronomer was a marvel at his work, he introduced controversial concepts that the church did not accept but those that he believed were to be true. Written by Galileo himself, this letter to the Grand Duchess professed his great discoveries and how they changed old ideas and
Though he was developing and testing his theories, Galileo was not exposed to mathematics but was intrigued in the subject after attending a geometry lecture. He then began to study mathematics and natural philosophy instead of medicine since right before he earned his degree, the university cut him off due to unpaid funds. Returning to Florence, he lectured at the Florentine academy, where he studied and applied his new interests, and in 1586 he published an essay describing his invention of the hydrostatic balance, when fluid is at rest, which made his name known throughout Italy. With his other interest of philosophy, Galileo studied fine arts and received an instructer position in the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence in 1588 where he met Cigoli, a painter, who applied Galileo’s astronomical observations in his painting. This led Galileo to expand his mentality to be more aesthetic.
He was an Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, and engineer who played a large role in the scientific revolution (1564-1642). Galileo was often faced with controversial arguments about his findings. Based on the shared knowledge of the Catholic Church, it tried to compress the personal knowledge of Galileo. This is where the idea of personal and shared knowledge shaping each other comes into perspective, as Galileo was continuously faced with the knowledge of the Church. Continuously his personal knowledge was rejected, because shared knowledge had such an influence among the people. His hypothesis frightened both the Protestant leaders and Catholic Church because it went against their teachings and authority. If people believed that the church could be wrong about this, they would question the church teachings as well. The Church warned Galileo of his theories, however silently he continued to research. The Church's greatest fear was that Galileo's personal knowledge would ultimately change the shared knowledge of the Church. In 1632, he published a book which presented both of the ideas of Copernicus and Ptolemy, and it was clear that Galileo supported the Copernican theory which stated that the Earth moved around the Sun. Galileo was sentenced to court and found guilty. Under torture, he admitted his findings were false. Only in 1992, the Catholic Church
Galileo Galilei (16th century C.E) was an Italian born natural philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. Initially intending to study medicine at the University of Pisa, he ended up dropping out without a degree. He began learning Aristotelian philosophy and mathematics on his own. Eventually, he was invited to a lecture series in Florence, which greatly helped him advance his career until he obtained a position as the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa1. His endearment of his career was probably a significant driving force for his initial interest in astronomy, which helped him achieve and maintain the position of court philosopher1. His take on the Lippershey telescope allowed him to view the sky like never before . Among his observations were the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and sun spots. This was a noteworthy opposition to the perfect heavens that were described by Aristotle. Throughout his life and career, Galileo was credited with such revolutionary discoveries that sparked the Galilean Revolution. It is in my opinion that his revolutionary work is due to him distancing himself from his predecessors via experiments, observations, thought experiments, and heavy criticism of past works.