subject: The Contributions Of Galileo Galilei [print this page] Science is a field of study that has contributed a great deal to the things that we enjoy in life. Think about what life would be like without scientific advancement that has been found by hardworking men and women throughout history.
The wheel could actually be considered as one of these advancements. What if the wheel had never been discovered?
Ask yourself the same question for a variety of findings that you currently enjoy. All of these things can be attributed in some way to science, and its role in creating a more efficient and enjoyable world.
One of these people who have contributed a lot to our understanding of the universe and how it affects us is Galileo Galilei. He was a man that could be considered a physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher.
He was born the fifteenth of February 1564 in Pisa, Italy to a family of six children. His father was a noted music theorist.
Galileo was educated Roman Catholic and was educated in a monastery. As a young man he even considered entering the priesthood but instead started studying medical school at his father's urging.
When his fathered died and he was left with the job of supporting his younger brother Michelangelo. Instead of continuing his studies in science he abandoned them devoted himself to mathematics.
He was appointed the chair of math in Pisa and even taught math at a local university. Galileo's interests began to multiply and he began to study all different kinds of fields.
Galileo in some respects can be considered a renaissance man, because he was interested and exceeded in many different things. The original renaissance man was Leonardo Da Vinci, who contributed to many different fields.
He excelled in math, physics, philosophy and astronomy. He is probably most noted for his findings in astronomy.
Hans Lippershey, from the Netherlands discovered the telescope, but just a year latter Galileo improved the telescope so that it was three times stronger than Lippershey's original discovery. Eventually he improved it so that it was thirty times more powerful than the original invention.
With his telescope, he was able to observe things on land like a spy glass and in the sky as well. He was actually able to sell them to merchants who would use them at sea and use them for trade.
With his telescope he made some discoveries that are still valid to this day. One of his findings was that the planet Jupiter had three almost invisible stars orbiting it.
He concluded that these were moons orbiting around Jupiter. This was revolutionary because Aristotle had taught that all objects in the heavens including stars, moons and the sun revolved around the earth.
The system that Aristotle had devised had been accepted for a long time and even the church taught that it was correct. Other things that Galileo discovered were craters on the moon's surface and sun spots on the sun.
These findings also shook up the world because Aristotle had also taught that all heavenly objects were perfect spheres and unchanging.
Another way in which he changed science was the way in which he did it. Previously most scientists had just thought really hard and speculated to create their ideas.
Galileo instead came up with a hypothesis and made observations often through experiments. By doing experiments he was able to repeat them and come up with very precise results.
Also because he was an expert at math he was able to back up his findings with equations. One experiment that has become famous is when he wondered if objects of different weights fell at the same or different seeds, so he dropped weights off the tower of Pisa.
Some historians have speculated that this never happened, but it seems that there is evidence to support that it actually occurred. He actually had some Catholic monks at the bottom who were supposed to watch and see if they hit at different or the same time.
The monks actually lied and said that the bigger one hit first because they could not accept his new findings. This event foreshadowed some of the future confrontations that he would have with the Catholic Church.
His findings especially his new model for the solar system with the sun at the center upset the church. He was convicted of heresy and was sentenced to house arrest where he died.
Galileo has been given many names and titles by many different people. The one that probably best describes him is the father of modern science.
