Reference
- Galileo (1564-1643) also known as Galileo GalileiItalian physicist and astronomer whose work founded the modern scientific method of deducing laws to explain the results of observation and experiment. In physics, Galileo discovered the properties of the pendulum, invented the thermometer, and formulated the laws that govern the motion of falling bodies. In astronomy, Galileo was the first to use the telescope to make observations of the Moon, Sun, planets, and stars.
Galileo was born in Pisa on 15 February 1564. His full name was Galileo Galilei, his father being Vincenzio Galilei (c.1520-1591), a musician and mathematician. Galileo received his early education from a private tutor at Pisa until 1575, when his family moved to Florence. He then studied at a monastery until 1581, when he returned to Pisa to study medicine at the university. Galileo was attracted to mathematics rather than medicine, however, and also began to take an interest in physics. In about 1583 he discovered that a pendulum always swings to and fro in the same period of time regardless of the amplitude (length) of the swing. He is said to have made this discovery by using his pulse to time the swing of a lamp in Pisa Cathedral.
Galileo remained at Pisa until 1585, when he left without taking a degree and returned home to Florence. There he studied the works of Euclid and Archimedes, and in 1586 extended Archimedes' work in hydrostatics by inventing an improved version of the hydrostatic balance for measuring specific gravity. At this time, Galileo's father was investigating the ratios of the tensions and lengths of vibrating strings that produce consonant intervals in music, and this work may well have demonstrated to Galileo that the validity of a mathematical formula could be tested by practical experiment.
In 1589 Galileo became professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa. He attacked the theories of Aristotle that then prevailed in physics, allegedly demonstrating that unequal weights fall at the same speed by dropping two cannon balls of different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to show that they hit the ground together. Galileo also published his first ideas on motion in De motu/On Motion (1590)...
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Perspectives
Galileo and 400 Years of Telescopic Astronomy
In 1609 Galileo first used his telescope to kick start the science of observational astronomy - an event that proved to be of enormous historic, scientific, and cultural importance. Galileo and 400 Years of Telescopic Astronomy will feature the life and achievements of Galileo, around which has pivoted the story of four centuries of telescopic astronomy. The book will detail how astronomy has progressed through four centuries and contain glimpses of future space research and astronomy goals. Uniquely, interwoven with the text will be a range of practical projects for backyard astronomers in which to participate, projects that serve to illustrate many of Galileo's scientific discoveries.
Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
This latest installment in our On the Shoulders of Giants series presents the provocative essay by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) in its entirety. Famed for its unapologetic support of Copernicus's theory and subsequent proof that the earth did indeed revolve around the sun (and not vice versa), Galileo's essay engendered great controversy when it was published, as well as heated opposition from the Church. The first work to outwardly challenge the established authority of religion, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences set the standard for all future scientists faced with the conflict of science and religion. In this text, readers will also find an illuminating biography of the father of modern physics, and an introduction by modern-day physics superstar Stephen Hawking.
Galileo: a Very Short Introduction
In a startling reinterpretation of the evidence, Stillman Drake advances the hypothesis that Galileo's trial and condemnation by the Inquisition was caused not by his defiance of the Church, but by the hostility of contemporary philosophers.Galileo's own beautifully lucid arguments are used to show how his scientific method was utterly divorced from the Aristotelian approach to physics in that it was based on a search not for causes but for laws. Galileo's method was of overwhelming significance for the development of modern physics,and led to a final parting of the ways between science and philosophy.
The Church and Galileo
This collection of first-rate essays aims to provide an accurate scholarly assessment of the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and Galileo. In 1981, Pope John Paul II established a commission to inquire into the Church's treatment of Galileo "in loyal recognition of wrongs, from whatever side they came," hoping this way to "dispel the mistrust . . . between science and faith." When the Galileo Commission finally issued its report in 1992, many scholars were disappointed by its inadequacies and its perpetuation of old defensive stratagems. This volume attempts what the Commission failed to provide--a historically accurate, scholarly, and balanced account of Galileo and his difficult relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. Contributors provide careful analyses of the interactions of the Church and Galileo over the thirty years between 1612 and his death in 1642. They also explore the attitudes of theologians to the Copernican innovation prior to Galileo's entry into the fray; survey the political landscape within which he lived; assess the effectiveness (or otherwise) of censorship of his work; and provide an analysis and occasional critique of the Church's later responses to the Galileo controversy. The book is divided into three sections corresponding to the periods before, during, and after the original Galileo affair. Particular attention is paid to those topics that have been the most divisive among scholars and theologians. The Church and Galileo will be welcomed by all those interested in early modern history and early modern science.
The Church and the Scientific Revolution
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Are religion and science always at odds? Reflect on this lightning-rod issue as you trace the history of the Scientific Revolution from the medieval worldview through the remarkable discoveries of the 16th and 17th centuries. Find out what really troubled the church about Galileo's proposition that the Earth was not at the center of the universe.
Causes of Motion
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowFor most people, the hardest part of learning physics is to stop thinking like Aristotle, who believed that force causes motion. It doesn't. Force causes change in motion. Learn how Galileo's realization of this principle, and Newton's later formulation of his three laws of motion, launched classical physics.
Galileo
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowThis dramatic production presents Galileo (Douglas Watson), challenger of traditional views of astronomy and physics, whose conflicts with established beliefs led to his trial as a heretic in 1632, but whose theories came to dominate Western thought in succeeding centuries.
Online Resources
- From Galileo to Navier and Clapeyron: The intuition of a genius versus engineering rigourGalileo (1564-1642), in his well-known Discorsi (Galileo, 1638), briefly turning his attention to the fracture of a beam, starts an interesting discussion on the beam’s breakage as well as its location. Could the section and breaking point of a beam have been determined beforehand? Furthermore, is it specific to the material? What Galileo did was not merely challenge a physics problem, but the prevailing knowledge of his time: namely, Aristotelianism on one hand, and Nominalism on the other. As a matter of fact, must the breakage of an element be treated as a universal or is it particular to a given material? The present essay aims to prove how Galileo, confronting the structural problem and bringing it into the realm of science, was not just raising a problem but, using Salviati’s words, he also established what actually takes place. Many years later, with the progress of physics, strength of materials and theory of structures, figures such as Claude Navier (1785-1836) and Benoît Clapeyron (1799-1864) confirmed once again that the Pisan turned out to be right. This article intends to combine technical fields such as strength of materials and theory of structures with others like the history of science and philosophy proper. A cooperative approach to these disciplines can be doubtlessly helpful to improve the knowledge, learning and teaching of their different curricula, giving the reader a global, holistic perspective.
- Galileo RevisitedBasic mechanics courses are geared toward analyzing given situations. However, an important aspect of mechanics, especially for loaded structures, is that of optimizing parameters of a structure within a given physical framework. Ideas of optimization are generally not introduced into engineering education until more advanced level courses. We use an apparent contradiction in Galileo's classic treatise Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences as a pretext for introducing optimization at the most elementary level possible in the basic Strength of Materials course.
- What the Middle-Aged Galileo Told the Elderly Galileo: Galileo’s Search for the Laws of FallRecent historiographic results in Galilean studies disclose the use of proportions, graphical representation of the kinematic variables (distance, time, speed), and the medieval double distance rule in Galileo’s reasoning; these have been characterized as Galileo’s “tools for thinking.” We assess the import of these “tools” in Galileo’s reasoning leading to the laws of fall ( v 2 ∝ D and v ∝ t ). To this effect, a reconstruction of folio 152 r shows that Galileo built proportions involving distance, time, and speed in uniform motions, and applied to them the double distance rule to obtain uniformly accelerated motions; the folio indicates that he tried to fit proportions in a graph. Analogously, an argument in Two New Sciences to the effect that an earlier proof of the law of fall started from an incorrect hypothesis ( v ∝ D ) can be recast in the language of proportions, using only the proof that v ∝ t and the hypothesis.
Free Fall and Inertia
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowReview three great discoveries by the "grandfather" of gravity research, Galileo Galilei. His most famous experiment may never have happened, but his principle of inertia, law of free fall, and principle of relativity are the basis for everything that comes later in the science of gravity--including key breakthroughs by Einstein.