Galileo Galilei was a remarkable discoverer of the 16th and 17th centuries. His inventions affect everyday life still today, and have proved, and disproved many things. He was a very intelligent man for his time. Galileo was always interested in how things worked, and he was anxious to know the answer to everything, and anything. Well, he did his part, and he found out many things that nobody wouldve ever thought of then, his outstanding performance would shine on the world of today.
Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564. His father, Vincenzo Galilei, was a musician, and his mother was Giulia degli Ammannati. His family belonged to the nobility, but was not very rich. Galileo, interested in the way things work, attended The University of Pisa, where his dad hoped he would study medicine. While in college Galileo studied the pendulum, doing this, he watched a suspended lamp swing back and forth in a cathedral. Finally Galileo made his most notable discovery, in 1602, he discovered the period (the time between which the pendulum swings back and forth) didnt depend on the arc of the swing. This discovery led Galileo into his further study of time intervals, and eventually the development for the pendulum clock.
During his time at The University of Pisa, Galileo studied the physics of the ancient Greek scientist, Aristotle. Galileo didnt agree with the physics, and he questioned it. Aristotelians believed that heavier objects would fall to the ground faster. Galileo believed otherwise, and eventually disproved it by stating that all objects, no matter their weight, mass, or density, in a vacuum, will all fall at the same rate of speed. Galileo performed various experiments to prove this by dropping certain objects from a certain height. In one of his early experiments, he rolled balls down a gently inclined slope. Then he determined their positions after equal time intervals.
In 1592, Galileo was appointed professor of math at The University of Padua. While he taught there, he frequently visited the arsenal, pretty much a ship port. He was amazed by ships, and shipbuilding. Over the years while visiting there, the shipman were presented with a problem involving the placement of the oars in the galleys. Galileo tackled the problem, and he treated the oars as a lever, and made the water a pivot. This device was eventually patented as a pump, and was powered by one horse.
These findings, and inventions are astonishing, and you can see how he affected the people of his day, and they still affect today, but thats not all he did. In 1609 Galileo invented the telescope, a colossal discovery, and a massive aid to the scientists, and discoverers of today. His first telescope that magnified objects by three times, later that year, he invented a telescope which magnified objects by up to twenty times. He was able to see the moon, discover the four satellites of Jupiter, he looked at Venus, and the suns sunspots. He also came across supernovas, which amazed him more than anything. His discoveries proved that the Copernican theory was true, this stated that the planets rotated around the sun. Before this, people believed the universe was geocentric, or that the sun revolved around the earth. His findings got him in trouble with the Catholic church, as they believed the geocentric theory was true. The cardinals threatened him, and told him under Pope V, that he couldnt release his information to the public. Eventually, in 1624, Pope Urban VIII assured Galileo that he could release his information, under the condition that is was mathematically speaking only. Galileo wrote of his findings titled, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Galileo was found guilty of heresy, and was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life. He eventually became blind, and died in 1642.
Obviously Galileo affected the world we live in, including the Hubble telescope, the pumps we use for numerous things, and his invention for the clocks. Galileo was a true genius of his time, and he sped things up for the world, and advanced it to a point unfathomable to the people of his time. He truly did his part, and he influences us today to be all we can be, and live life to its fullest. He was a scholar of the renaissance, and to this day we remember him.
