Galileo Galilei
Uploaded by artik on May 23, 2006
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy on February 18, 1564. Galileo was most famously known for his discovery that two objects, dropped from the same height, fall at the same speed, once they hit terminal velocity, regardless of their weight. What also makes Galileo a special scientist is that, he was the one, to discover the law of inertia and paving the way for the work of Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century.
At the time of Galileo, many common beliefs had started to be challenged. At the time a great debate between the System of Ptolemy, which placed the earth in the center of the universe, and heliocentric system of Copernicus, which placed the sun in the center of the universe and the earth orbited around the sun. Through major studies with his telescope, Galileo started to go with the belief of the Copernican theory. Since this was against what the Catholic Church believed, Galileo started to be scrutinized by the Catholic Church.
Galileo lived under house arrest, due to his beliefs, for the last eight years of his life, but he still continued to work and study. In 1638, he published his last piece of work.
The sort of interactions Galileo had with some of the other scientists of his time where mostly just competition. Galileo thought one thing, someone thought something different. The competition was to see who was right and who was wrong. There wasn’t really a relationship or interaction with Galileo and people like Copernicus, just that Galileo’s work depended on Copernicus, because Galileo’s ideas where built of that of Copernicus, not that they had a competition or an interaction per say.
I think overall Galileo took the big ideas of others and more deeply worked on them and proved them. That’s the big thing. Galileo took the ideas of his time, built off of them, and proved them to be, in fact, correct. Just think, if Galileo could have proven himself in court and shown the Catholic Church today, in today’s times, how he was right and shouldn’t have ever been under house arrest.
By Shane Maloney Replication is allowed. Credit is not required. [shane.kohek@gmail.com]
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