BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY: GALILEO GALILEI Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Italy as the first child out of six. His father was Vincenzo Galilei who was a music theorist, composer, and lutenist, and his mother was named Giulia Ammannati. In 1574, his family moved to Florence where he began his education formally. He began studying music when he enrolled at the University of Pisa in 1581, but soon went down the track of mathematics. Just two years later, Galileo would make important discoveries regarding the way the pendulums move and the laws of their movement. Galileo was the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa and Padua from 1589 to 1610. He conducted many experiments with falling bodies that made important contributions
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August of that year, Galileo demonstrated this telescope to merchants from Veneto who thought that the tool would be useful in spotting ships, so they paid him to make more telescopes. In January of 1610, he would discover four of Jupiter’s moons, which he mistook for stars. He wanted to name the moons “Medicean Stars” after Cosimo II de Medici, the duke of Tuscany, with whom Galileo was trying to make friends. This gained him so much popularity that Galileo was appointed the mathematician and philosophers of the Medicis by Cosimo II. However his theories caused much controversy because the orbital patterns of the Medicean stars would have disproved the idea that the heavens revolved around the earth. Additionally, when he discovered that Venus had phases like the moon, it disproved Aristotle’s theory that the universe revolved around the earth. Galileo’s observations of the sun and moon disproved Aristotle’s notion that the sun and moon are …show more content…
In his third book, Discourse on Bodies in Water, he disproves another one of Aristotle’s theories, stating that the buoyancy of an object has to do with the weight of the object, not the shape of it. Finally, his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was written as a conversation between three people talking about Copernicus’ theory that the sun was the center of the universe, with one person who agreed, one neutral person, and one who disagreed. Despite the book being advertised as neutral, the person who still believed that the earth was the center was displayed as clueless because he kept tripping over his words. In 1613, Galileo composed a letter that addressed how Copernicus’ heliocentric theory did not contradict the Bible. Three years later, the Catholic church ordered Galileo not to teach, speak of, or defend the Copernican theory, and for seven years he cooperated because he was a devout Catholic and to avoid
August of that year, Galileo demonstrated this telescope to merchants from Veneto who thought that the tool would be useful in spotting ships, so they paid him to make more telescopes. In January of 1610, he would discover four of Jupiter’s moons, which he mistook for stars. He wanted to name the moons “Medicean Stars” after Cosimo II de Medici, the duke of Tuscany, with whom Galileo was trying to make friends. This gained him so much popularity that Galileo was appointed the mathematician and philosophers of the Medicis by Cosimo II. However his theories caused much controversy because the orbital patterns of the Medicean stars would have disproved the idea that the heavens revolved around the earth. Additionally, when he discovered that Venus had phases like the moon, it disproved Aristotle’s theory that the universe revolved around the earth. Galileo’s observations of the sun and moon disproved Aristotle’s notion that the sun and moon are …show more content…
In his third book, Discourse on Bodies in Water, he disproves another one of Aristotle’s theories, stating that the buoyancy of an object has to do with the weight of the object, not the shape of it. Finally, his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was written as a conversation between three people talking about Copernicus’ theory that the sun was the center of the universe, with one person who agreed, one neutral person, and one who disagreed. Despite the book being advertised as neutral, the person who still believed that the earth was the center was displayed as clueless because he kept tripping over his words. In 1613, Galileo composed a letter that addressed how Copernicus’ heliocentric theory did not contradict the Bible. Three years later, the Catholic church ordered Galileo not to teach, speak of, or defend the Copernican theory, and for seven years he cooperated because he was a devout Catholic and to avoid