Gailileo
GailileoBorn: Feb 15 1564 in Pisa (now Italy)
Died: Jan 8 1642 in Areetri
Gaileo Galilei's father, Vincenzo Galilei (1520-1591), who described himself as a
nobleman of Florence, was a professional musician. He carried out experiments on strings
to support his musical theories. Galileo studied medicine at the university of Pisa, but his
real interests were always in mathematics and natural philosophy. He is chiefly
remembered for his work on free fall, his use of the telescope and his employment of
experimentation.
After a spell teaching mathematics, first privately in Florence and then at the
university of Pisa, in 1592 Galileo was appointed professor of mathematics at the
university of Padua (the university of the Republic of Venice). There his duties were
mainly to teach Euclids geometry in order to make use of astrology in their medical
practice. However, Galileo apparently discussed more unconventional forms of
astronomy and natural philosophy in a public lecture he gave in connection with the
appearance of a New Star (now known as "Kepler's supernova") in 1604. In a personal
letter written to Kepler (1571 - 1630) in 1598, Galileo had stated that he was a
Copernican (believer in the Theories of Copernicus). No public sign of this belief was to
appear until many years later.
In the summer of 1609, Galileo heard about a spyglass that a Dutchman had shown
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in Venice. From these reports, and using his own technical skills as a mathematicians and
a workman, Galileo made a series of telescopes whose optical performance was much
better than that of the Dutch instrument. The astronomical discoveries he made with his
telescopes were described in a short book called Message from the Stars published in
Venice in May 1610. It caused a sensation. Galileo claimed to have seen four small
bodies orbiting Jupiter. These last, with an eye on getting a job in Florence, he promptly
named the "the Medicean stars."
It worked, Soon afterwards, Galileo became "mathematician and Natural
philosopher," to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In Florence he continued his work on
mation and on mechanics, and...
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