Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei: Changing the World One Experiment at a Time Inventor and astronomer Galileo Galilei is one of the most well-known scientists in the history of the world. Galileo has been credited for many astonishing inventions such as the pendulum and the telescope. Through many years of research and studious acts, he discovered behaviors of the universe that still hold true today. Galileo, “the Father of Modern Science”, changed the world. Galileo was born in February of 1564 to a poor family that resided in Pisa, Italy. Galileo’s father was a composer and musical therapist, but he also supported his family through working in the wool trade. Galileo and his family moved to Florence, Italy in the 1570s, and here Galileo began to attend

Galileo brought Aristotle’s errors into the light of his pupils, and a rage broke out. Aristotle’s followers refused to believe Galileo, even though the evidence was right in front of them. After many days of argument and experiment, the opinions of Galileo’s opponents remained unchanged (Galileo). Galileo, aware of the truth of his own doctrine, started to show his superiority through ridicule and sarcasm, which eventually lead to him being persecuted by his pupils. Galileo ended up leaving Pisa out of embarrassment (Slitcher).

After leaving Pisa, Galileo took a few small teaching jobs to earn money. During this time, Galileo began to study objects in motion. He ended up studying this topic for over twenty years. Also during this time, Galileo published a book titled The Little Balance where he described the hydrostatic properties of weighing small objects. The publishing of this book brought Galileo a lot of fame

After his book was published, Galileo was tried by the Inquisition because his findings went against what the Holy Scripture said, stating that everything revolves around Earth. Galileo was said to be “sinning” by publishing this work, and he was accused of trying to prove the Bible wrong. His book later became banned (Leveillee).

In 1613, after his book was banned, Galileo decided to write a letter to a student explaining that his findings did not contradict the Bible because scripture was, “written from an earthly perspective” and his findings were just more accurate (Galileo). The letter was made public, and after the church Inquisition consultants read it, they ordered Galileo to not “hold, teach, or defend in any manner” this theory. Galileo, to avoid fuss, obeyed the rules (Leveillee).

Because of his discoveries and eighteen years of experience teaching at Padua, Galileo grew more and more famous, and his salary had almost tripled. Galileo caught word one summer afternoon of a mechanism that existed in the Netherlands that could make distant objects appear closer. Intrigued by the idea, he decided to make one of these contraptions of his own. To do this, Galileo used spectacle lenses, which at first only magnified things two to three times their size, but Galileo then improved this to eight or nine times their size