The Inventor
Galileo Galilei
This figure is known as the inventor of the first telescope.
This great Italian scientist may also be more responsible for the development of the scientific method than anyone else.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Galileo was born in Pisa in 1564. Galileo was the son of Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia di Cosimo Ammati. While young studying at the University of Pisa but stagnated due to financial affairs.
Even so in 1589 he was able to get a teaching position at the university. A few years later he joined the University of Padua and remained there until 1610.
It was during this time that he created a pile of scientific discoveries. His first major contribution was in the field of mechanics.
THE THOUGHTS OF GALILEO GALILEI
Aristotle taught that heavier things fall faster than lighter things, and generations of shrewd men swallow the opinion of the great Greek philosopher.
However, Galileo decided to try first to be right, and through a series of experiments he concluded that Aristotle was wrong.
The truth is, both heavy and light objects fall at the same speed except to the extent that they decrease in speed due to air shifts. (It so happens that Galileo's habit of throwing objects from the tower of Pisa seems to be unconscious).
Knowing this, Galileo took further steps. He carefully measured the distance of the fall of the object at the specified time and got evidence that the distance traveled by the falling object was proportional to the number of seconds of the fall of the object.
This discovery (meaning uniformity of acceleration) has its own significance. Even more importantly, Galileo was able to gather the results of his discoveries with mathematical formulas.
The widespread use of mathematical formulas and mathematical methods is an important trait of modern science. Another major contribution of Galileo was his discovery of the law of humidity.
Previously, people believed that moving objects by themselves tended to become slower and completely stopped if there was no energy that added strength to keep moving.
But Galileo's experiments proved that assumption wrong. When a force slows down, such as a shift, can be removed, moving objects tend to remain in motion indefinitely.
This is an important principle that has been repeatedly affirmed by Newton and combined with his own system as the first law of motion one of the vital principles in science.
DISCOVERIES IN ASTRONOMY
Galileo's most famous discovery was in the field of astronomy. Astrology theory in the early 1600s was in an uncertain situation.
There was a difference of opinion between Copernicus' sun-centric theorists and the older, earth-centric theorists. Around 1609 Galileo expressed his belief that Copernicus was on the right side, but at that time he did not know how to prove it.
TELESCOPE DISCOVERY
In 1609, Galileo heard that a telescope was invented in the Netherlands. Although Galileo only heard faintly about the equipment.
But thanks to his genius he was able to create his own telescope. With this new tool he turned his attention to the sky and in just a year he had already managed to make a series of great discoveries.
He saw that the moon was not flat but bumps, full of craters and mountains. The heavenly bodies, in conclusion, are not flat and slippery but irregular like the face of the earth.
He looked at the Milky Way and saw to him that it was not a kind of fog at all but composed of a large number of stars with the naked eye like stirring and mingling with each other.
Then planites were targeted and it appeared to him that Saturn was wrapped around a bracelet. His telescope glanced at Jupiter and he knew there were four moons circling the planet.
There had been others before who had also seen these spots, but Galileo published his findings in a more effective way and put the sunspot issue to the attention of the scientific world.
Next, his research turned to the Venusian planite which had a similarly true run to the lunar term. This is part of the important evidence that confirms Copernicus' theory that the earth and all other planites revolve around the sun.
THE CONFLICT WITH THE CHURCH
The invention of the telescope and a spate of discoveries threw Galileo up the ladder of fame. Meanwhile, his support of Copernicus' theory led him to confront the church against him.
This church controversy reached its peak in 1616: he was ordered to refrain from spreading the Copernican hypothesis. Galileo had been troubled by these restrictions for years. It was not until the death of the Pope in 1623 that he was replaced by a man who admired Galileo.
The following year, the new Pope –Urban VIII– foreshadowed, though vaguely, that the ban on Galileo was no longer enforced.
The next six years Galileo spent time compiling his important scientific work The Dialogue About the Two Important Systems of the World. This book is a great demonstration of the things that concerns the support of Copernican theory and this book was published in 1632 with the permission of a special censor from the church.
However, the church authorities responded with a furious attitude when the book was published and Galileo was immediately brought before the Religious Court in Rome on charges of violating the prohibition of 1616.
But clearly, many church officials were unhappy with the decision to punish a prominent scholar. Even under church law at the time, Galileo's case was questioned and he was simply sentenced.
Galileo was not thrown into prison but was simply put under house arrest in his own house which was quite tasty in a villa in Arcetri. The theory is that he should not accept guests, but in fact the rules were not implemented as they should.
Another punishment against him was a request that he openly retract his opinion that the earth revolved around the sun. The 69-year-old scientist carried it out in front of an open court.
GALILEO DIED
(There is a famous story that is not necessarily true that after Galileo withdrew his opinion he lowered his head to earth and whispered softly, “Tok, he still keeps moving!”). In the city of Arcetri he continued his written work in the field of mechanics. Galileo died in 1642.
GALILEO GALILEI'S
Galileo's great contributions to the advancement of science have long been known. The significance of his role lies in scientific discoveries such as the law of humidity, the invention of his telescope.
Observations of his astronomical field and his genius proved Copernicus' hypothesis. And more important is its role in the development of scientific methodology.
Most natural philosophers base their opinions on the thoughts of Aristotle and make qualitative investigations and categorical phenomena.
Instead, Galileo established phenomena and made observations on a quantitative basis. The careful emphasis on quantitative calculation has since become the basis of scientific inquiry in later times.
Galileo probably had more responsibility than anyone else for scientific inquiry with an empirical attitude. It was he, and not the others, who first emphasized the significance of the demonstration of experiments, that he rejected the notion that scientific problems could be decided along with power, whether that power is called the Church or Aristotle's rule.
He also balked at relying on schemes that used complicated reasoning instead of leaning on a solid experimental basis. Middle-century intellectuals talked long-winded about what should happen and why things happen, but Galileo insisted on the importance of conducting experiments to ascertain what really happened.
His scientific outlook is clearly not mystical, and in this connection he is even more modern than his successors, such as Newton.
Galileo could be considered a religious man. Despite the punishment inflicted on him and his confession, he did not reject either religion or the church. What he rejected was the attempt of the church authorities to suppress his scientific inquiry.
The next generation had reason to admire Galileo as a symbol of rebellion against dogma and against authoritarian rule that tried to shackle freedom of thought. Its more prominent significance is the role it plays in laying the foundations of modern scientific methods.
