Galileo Galilei

Essay by Anonymous UserUniversity, Bachelor'sA, October 1996

download word file, 8 pages 4.7

The Life and Achievements of Galileo Galilei

The paper which I will be writing will discuss the life, discoveries, and the modern impact of the scientific accomplishments

of Galileo Galilei. Born in Pisa, Italy in 1564, Galileo entered Pisa University as a medical student in 1581 and became a

professor of mathematics at Padua. An astronomer and mathematician, Galileo was, unfortunately for himself, a man ahead

of his time. Galileo discovered the law of uniformly accelerated motion towards the Earth, the parabolic path of projectiles,

and the law that all bodies have weight. Among his other accomplishments was the improvement of the refracting telescope

in 1610 and his advocacy of the Copernican theory which brought him into a conflict of ideas and truths between himself and

the Inquisition. He was condemned by the church whose theories threatened everything that was taught by the priesthood

as the holy truth and he was eventually broken by the Inquisition.

Before being ultimately defeated by the church, however,

Galileo made many contributions to the world of physics. His scientific discoveries and endeavors were only a portion of his

contributions to the scientific community. Galileo's methods of testing and proving his theories were also of major importance

since these painstaking and exact methodologies would lay the groundwork for future scientific discoveries. His brilliance

brought about a new era in scientific advancement and his defeat at the hands of the church put a stop to the scientific

revolution which he had started. In 1993 the Vatican formally recognized the validity of Galileo Galilei's scientific work.

References Cited

1. GALILEO: PIONEER SCIENTIST - Stillman Drake 1990

2. GALILEO A LIFE - James Reston, Jr. 1941

3. COLLEGE MATHEMATICS JOURNAL - May 1994, Volume 25 Issue 3, p 193

Galileo Galilei was a great scientist and pioneer in...