Personal Summary - Week 6

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

            Galileo Galilei was a great scientist that influence in my studies. My major is Physics, and Galilei was a fundamental personality in the Scientific Revolution of 17th century. As his father wished, he entered the University of Pisa in 1581 to study medicine. However, two years later, he gave up studying medicine and decided to study mathematics with Ostilio Ricci, a disciple of the famous Niccolo Tartaglia.  In Padua, Galileo worked out of his mechanics and began his work with the telescope. Galileo's observations strengthened his belief in Copernicus' theory that Earth and all other planets revolve around the Sun. In 1613, he published  “Letters on the Sunspots”, which he first expressed his position in favor of Copernicus. After this he was called to an audience with Cardinal Robert Bellarmine and advised not to teach or defend Copernican theory. He published in 1623 “The Assayer”. In this book, he made he made some of his most famous methodological pronouncements including the claim the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics.  In 1632, he said among other thing, that the heliocentric  theory of Copernicus was correct. Therefore Galileo was once again called before the Inquisition and this time was found guilty of heresy. In 1634, while Galileo was under house arrest he began work on his final book, Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations concerning Two New Sciences. Galielo has been called “The father of Modern Science”, because he advocated the empirical method, breaking with the more abstracts Aristotelian method used at that time. Galileo Galilei died on January 8, 1642.

Sources

•  http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/galileo.html
• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/galileo/