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Comparison Between Foscarini And Galileo

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Destiny Dunham
Professor Westman
CAT 1
8 November 2016 Foscarini and Galileo Paper Prior to the seventeenth century, geocentrism was nearly universally accepted. The views of Aristotle and Ptolemy became common teachings in universities and the church. It had been common practice to see the Earth as the concrete and unmoving center of the universe, and the sun as but another heavenly body which rotated around the Earth. However, as technology was expanding, new inventions and devices were appearing that would soon cause a disturbance in the views of geocentrism. Although all the necessary factors for the telescope existed as early as the mid sixteenth century, the first actual designs of telescopes were not seen until around the very start of the seventeenth century (Helden). Despite the advancements made, these designs still were very rough and had rather weak magnification ranging only around three to four times the naked eye (Helden). Furthermore, the telescope’s advancements did not create a large following until the development of the telescope by Galileo Galilei in 1609. With his developments on the instrument, Galileo was able to produce a magnification of up to 20 times the naked eye (Helden). With this instrument, Galileo was able to observe the heavens and make numerous new discoveries. He had observed that Jupiter had “heavenly bodies” orbiting it, much like the moon is in orbit around the Earth (Helden). This, along with more of Galileo’s discoveries were

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