Galileo Essay Research Paper Galileo Galileo was

Galileo Essay, Research Paper

Galileo

Galileo was a pioneer of modern physics and telescopic astronomy who was born on February 15, 1564 near Pisa, Italy. As an Italian physicist and astronomer, he was the first to use the telescope to discover many undiscovered realms of space. His discoveries of sunspots, lunar mountains and valleys, and the satellites of Jupiter formed the basis of modern astronomy. His discoveries opened a gateway into the unexplored areas of the universe.

Galileo’s education began in Vallambrosa where monks taught him, but the takeoff point of his career was when he registered at the University of Pisa at the age of seventeen. He learned of the studies of Aristotle and studied his writings on logic, motion, and the structure of the universe. Over the years Galileo criticized and refuted many of Aristotle’s views. He became one of the most relentless advocates against of Aristotle’s doctrines. Galileo’s studies began in the Cathedral of Pisa one day as Galileo was watching a lamp that was swinging from the ceiling. He observed a rhythm in the swings of the lamp and noticed that the lamp always took the same time to go from one end of its swing to the other. His goal was to find out whether or not all of the swings took the same amount of time. He and a friend both made pendulums and decided to count the number of oscillations that the pendulums made in a given amount of time. They found that both pendulums made the same number of oscillations at the same time. Thus he discovered the law of isochronism, or equality of time, of oscillations. By 1586, Galileo left the University of Pisa and went back to his family in Florence.

In Florence, Galileo applied himself to geometry and from the study of Euclid he soon passed to that of other ancient mathematicians, especially Archimedes. Galileo found in Archimedes a teacher for whom he learned the power and the wide intellectual range of mathematical reasoning. Galileo studies produced two books that he wrote during this period. One, in Latin contains the theorems to determine the center of gravity of solid bodies, made him known among mathematicians of his time. The other book, called the Little Balance, was written in Italian. In this book he told how he read the story of Archimedes and the studies of bodies immersed in water.

In the fall of that year Galileo moved to Pisa where he studied while he continued to teach at the university, in this period he resumed his study of motion and wrote a short book in Latin know as De Motu (On Motion). In De Motu , Galileo tried to disprove some of Aristotle’s main views about motion. One of his objections was the assertion that motion, in the absence of the direct action of a force, is maintained by the medium in which it takes place. De Motu represents Galileo’s first step in his systematic study of motion and is a key point of reference in Galileo’s intellectual development. It shows that Galileo had already started the deep process of original thinking and critical revision of Aristotle’s principles that lasted throughout his life.

At about this time Galileo tried to disprove one particular statement of Aristotle’s. Aristotle said that when bodies of the same material but of different weights fall freely, they fall with speeds proportional to their weights. To prove that lighter and heavier objects fall at the same speed, Galileo climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa while the entire body of students gathered in the square below to watch the demonstration. From the top of the tower, Galileo let go two objects of the same substance but of different weights at exactly the same time. They reached the ground at exactly the same time. This story may or may not be true, but was also proved by the Dutch mathematician Simon Stevinus.

At the age of 28, Galileo moved to Padua. These years were said to be the best eighteen years of his life. Galileo made friends among the nobles and the rich Venetians. One of his most important friends, Giovanni Francesco Sagredo, used his position to improve Galileo’s status as a scientist at the University. Following Sagredo’s death, Galileo’s friend lived on as a character in two of his best books, Dialogue of the Two Greatest Systems of the World and Two New Sciences. Galileo became a professor at the University of Padua and began to teach large numbers of students. During these years Galileo wrote many of his greatest books, including Fortifications, Military Constructions, and Mechanics. The last and most important was a true engineering textbook that described the action of simple machines such as the lever, pulley, screw, and inclined plane. He also dealt with problems of falling bodies that he took up again in later years.

In 1597, Galileo built an instrument that illustrates both his competence in mathematical calculation and his great craftsmanship. This device was known as the geometric and military compass. It was a combination of a divider and slide rule. It helped to solve a large number of mathematical and geometric problems, including the extraction of square and cubic roots. Because the end of the sixteenth century was a period of conflict, Galileo stressed military uses of this instrument. For instance, the compass was used to determine relations of weight and size of cannon balls, to regulate the front and side formations of armies, and to measure the inclin