THEA MELODIAS

GALILEO GALILEI

 

   For most of his life as a scientist, Galileo was engaged in a struggle with a man who had been dead for almost 2,000 years. The man was Aristotle, the greatest scientist of the ancient world. In galileo's day Aristotle's writings on science were accepted as the absolute truth. Yet, in fact, Aristotle  had made many errors. Many of his views would not stand up under questioning, and questioning was Galileo's approach to science. It was an approach that Aristotle himselfnhave approved. But Galileo had to deal with men who objected to any questioning of the ancient autorities. Fortunately for modern science, Galileo was not easily discouraged.

    Galileo was famous for his studies of the laws of falling bodies and the laws of motion. he was th efirst to use the telescope to make important discoveries about the planets and the stars in the Milky Way. In 1581, he was sent to the University of Pisa to study medicine. Galileo had little interest in medicine and found his classes boring. But his active and curious mind led him to the world of science.   One day, while sitting in the cathedral of Pisa, Galileo noticed the oil lamps swinging  overhead. Some were swinging in higher arcs than others. Galileo expected the lamps wider arcs to take longer to complete their swings than those with smaller arcs. When he timed the swings against the beats of his pulse, he found that they all took the same amount of time. After experimenting at home, he worked out the laws that govern  a pendulum. Galileo used his findings about pendulums to invent a timing device. More important, however, had set the pattern of his life. A simple observation led to questions and experiments,  which led to new knowledge and applications. 

      Galileo left medical school without becoming a doctor and returned to Florence. By this time he was deep in serious  studies of mathematics and science. his writings on physics made him known, and he became professor of mathematics at the university at the Univesity of Pisa.

      Aristotle had stated stated  that heavy objects fall faster than light ones. This seems true if you if you drop a coin and a sheet of paper at the same time. In working out the laws governing falling bodies, Galileo said to have drpped balls of various weights together at the same height. All reached the ground together, proving Aristotle wrong. To measure the speed at which the balls fell, Galileo used a tilted board so that the balls would roll slowly enough to be timed. There were no clocks then, so Galleo let water from a bucket run into a measuring cup. Thus he measured time by the height of the water in the cup. His questioninf of Aristotle's ideas made Galileo unpopular, resulting him to leave Pisa. He moved to the University of Padua, where he was free to teach and do his research.   

       Galileo performed many more experiments, inventions and discoveries like: construting a telescope that could see distant obects from space, discovering that Jupiter has moons revolving around it, also he discovered that Venus, like the moon, went through phases which can only be expaline if Venus was revolving around the Sun. The church as the chief supporter of Aristotle opposed the Copernican system . In 1611, however, Glileo visited Rome, where he was given a warm welcome by the pope and other church officials. They were particularly impressed by his telescope.

        Galileo was now reaching at the height of his fame, but he was soon to fall from favor. Everything he published seemed to support the Copernican system. His last last work was on sunspots which he and a handful of other men had discovered.  In 1616, the Copernican system was condemned by the church as an attack on its teachings. The pope ordered Galileo to stop supporting it. Galileo promised to obey.    In the meantime Galileo had left Padua  for Florence, where he continued his other works.

He studied magnetism. He worked on some inventions. He perfected the compound Microscope. Finally. he returned back to the Copernican system. He could not leave it alone. As a Catholic he had no desire to quarrel with his church. But at issue was the right a scientist to seek the truth.  In 1632 he published " Dialogue on the Two Cheif Sytems of the World", a clever book that consisted of a conversation among the three men with differnt ideas about the universe Galileo  pretended not to take sides, but there was no doubt that the winner of the argument was the man who supported the Copernican system. Galileo was called to Rome, imprisoned , and forced to deny his belief. He was allowed to return home but only if he promised to stop writing on astronomy. Glileo spent his last years confined to his villa near Florence by order of the church. But he was allowed to teach. He carried on his research. He in vented new instruments. He also wrote his great book on motion and mechanics, summing up his work in this field. 

     Through all these years. Galileo kept up his varied and lively interests. he has always been talented in many fields. He was an artist, he played the lute and the organ; he wrote songs, poems, and literary criticism. these and even his scientific writings were lively and witty in style, designed for a large audience. Indeed it was Galileo's way of writing that probably caused the most trouble between him and the authorities . Galileo was the first to write in language that ordinary people could understand. In age when most scholars worte in Latin, Galileo chose to write his books in Italian.

    Galileo's many discoveries, theories, inventions, adn books are all important. But his main achievement is that he established for alltime the nee and the right of scientists to question. Above all, he insisted on searching for the truth . He was still searching when he died on January 8, 1642. As we noe know, he had laid the groundwork for modern physics. And his search would be carried on by scientists like Isaac Newton, born the same year Galileo died.