Galileo Galilei: The Life Of Galileo

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Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy in 1564 during the Renaissance.This was a rebirthing period in Europe started off in Italy for art, philosophy, and sciences. The Renaissance brought back many ideas from Ancient Greece and Rome introducing many scientists like Galileo. Attending the University of Pisa originally going to study medicine, he was taught the Aristotelian view on the world, later questioning it making way for many of his greatest discoveries. He was an outstanding astronomer, physicist, philosopher and mathematician where he played a leading role in science during that time. Galileo is probably mostly known for his telescopic discoveries, but one cannot forget about his marvelous contributions to physics. Some of the …show more content…
One of the fundamental philosophies in Aristotelian philosophy was if there are two objects and one is two times heavier than the other one, the heavier one should fall two times faster than the lighter one. Galileo thought if a body is in freefall, their weight doesn 't determine speed but gravity does. He tested this by dropping objects from heights only to find out his theory wasn 't correct. He stated that the lighter object will go faster than the heavier object at first, but then the heavier body gains speed and arrives at the ground a few seconds before the lighter object does. This is another experiment that some argue Galileo never truly did any experiments on regarding this theory. But when Galileo’s said experiment was tested by some students using a spherical wooden ball and another one made of iron, the wooden ball was ahead of the iron balls when falling. The explanation for this is that since the iron ball is slightly heavier than the wooden balls, it took longer to release the iron ball. This later became known as the Law of Falling Bodies or the Law of Acceleration. Reported by Helden (1995) “...and in the end he arrived at the law of falling bodies which states that in a vacuum all bodies, regardless of their weight, shape, or specific gravity, are uniformly accelerated in …show more content…
As stated in Helden(1995) “Weighing precious metals in air and then in water was presumably a practice that was common among jewelers in Europe.” (p.1) . He then used the water displacement method and saw the crown is in fact not all gold. Galileo then wrote a paper about how to accurately weigh things in the air and in water by being hung with a metal wire. The amount the weight had been moved in the water, and by reading the spins in wire shows the ratio of gold to silver. To conclude Galileo Galilei helped pave the way for modern physics during the Renaissance period with his vast knowledge and theories. During his lifetime, he came up with inertia, friction, acceleration, hydrostatic balance, and displacement. Each and every one of these discoveries have helped revolutionize physics, advancing theories and ways of

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