Galileo's Accomplishments

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

Galileo’s findings from his telescopic observations were revolutionary because he showed that the heavens were not perfect.

“Men who were grounded in astronomical and physical science were persuaded as soon as they received my first message…” (30). Others took longer to come to terms with Galileo’s work due to how different it was from what they had come to believe. And, some were so stuck in their ways that they refused to look at the evidence and denied the truth at all cost.

Annotated Bibliography: Galileo Galilei By Mitchell D’India Shea, William R., and Mariano Artigas. Galileo in Rome: The Rise and Fall of a Troublesome Genius. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. Print. A unique retelling of the six times Galileo traveled into Rome and fought for the theories Copernicus brought forward.

Galileo made a revolutionary discovery. He utilized a telescope to gaze into the night sky, and found that the sun was located at the center of the solar system. Furthermore, he found that the planets revolved around the sun. These findings were against popular belief and that of the Church. Galileo promoted his theory of heliocentrism through various writings and conversations with individuals, but in 1633,

Galileo made telescoped but wanted more. He would soon make a decision of making a telescope the view the universe. Later on he would discover certain things, such as the Moon and Venus. Galileo would notice, that Venus had certain stages similar to the moon. This

Instead, Galileo improved the magnification of the spyglass and used it to look at the sky, creating the telescope. At that time, the spyglass could only magnify objects to three times their original size. Galileo refined the lens, allowing it to magnify things up to first eight, then later, in 1610, 30 times their original size. By using this telescope, he was able to observe the movement of objects in the sky, such as stars and planets, that supported the Copernicus’s theory of heliocentrism - that the sun was the center of the universe. He also found that the moon was not completely smooth, as most people at the time assumed it would be. Instead, it had was bumpy and had hills and

Galileo was born in Florence, Italy in 1564 to a poor family but among their people they were considered quite noble. His parents realized that Galileo possessed pronounced intellectual gifts. They made great sacrifices to give Galileo the education that he deserved. At the University of Pisa he studied medicine to grant his father’s wishes, while there he became interested in a wide range of other subjects. Even as a student at the University of Pisa he questioned many of Aristotle’s teachings, therefor, when he began to teach there himself he was left isolated from his fellow professor. Galileo worked at the University of Pisa for three years before he resigned and began his teachings as a math professor at the University of Padua. At that university he was a well-loved professor who attracted large

Throughout history, examples of technological advances against the approval of the general populations are in abundance. In the early to mid 1600’s, Galileo Galilei made many scientific and mathematical discoveries. However, in this time period, many did not agree with his claims as when the Church ordered Galileo to keep quiet about his theories about the Earth orbiting around the Sun.

Prior to Galileo’s time, the Greek and medieval mind, science was a kind of formalism, a means of coordinating data, which had no bearing on the ultimate reality of things. The point was to give order to complicated data, and all that mattered was the hypothesis that was simplest to understand and most convenient. Astronomy and mathematics were regarded as the playthings of intellectuals. They were accounted as having neither philosophical nor theological relevance. There was genuine puzzlement among Churchmen that they had to get involved in a quarrel over planetary orbits.

“That moment when the Church excommunicates you for being right.” In 1564 on February 15th in Pisa, Italy, Galileo Galilei was born. Throughout his life he had numerous accomplishments including being the first person to study the sky with a telescope, which led to numerous other astronomically astronomical discoveries. If he would not have existed we may never have uncovered many of the truths about space and astronomy. Galileo Galilei was a man of thought and curiosity, these characteristics led him to be one the most well known and influential scientists in the world today.

While Galileo holds little respect for those who take Aristotle’s theories at face value, he shows no lack of respect for the great philosopher himself. Galileo applauds the fact that Aristotle’s works are examined and closely studied, and “only blame(s) submitting to him in such a way that one blindly subscribes to all his assertions and accepts them as unquestionable dictates” (200). Galileo’s arguments for heliocentrism would convince any layman of their truth, but his opponents are so set in their ways that they would be unwilling to even listen to his concepts. When an opponent relies on ancient words and does not use ration to come to their beliefs, it is impossible to use ration to convince them otherwise. Galileo, in his effort to contest what his opponents consider incontestable,

hide his lack of proof by focusing on only what he knew. His actions on the

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

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.