Galileo's Legacy Essay

735 Words3 Pages

Chance Nguyen
Dr. Hawkins
8 March 2023
Galileo’s Legacy Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist and astronomer who provided contributions to science during his time. Galileo was born in Pisa on February 15, 1564 (Black 51). During his childhood and leading into his teenage years Galileo independently started learning math and physical science. He was also enrolled at the University of Pisa as a student of medicine. Due to his developing interest in mathematics and science, along with financial struggles forced Galileo to leave the University of Pisa in 1585 without a degree ("Galileo Galilei." Math & Mathematicians). After leaving the University of Pisa he spent 3 years searching for a job as a teacher, resulting in failure. …show more content…

Through these experiments, Galileo challenged Aristotle's idea that heavier objects fell faster than lighter objects, which at the time considered scientific law. Although there is no evidence supporting the idea that Galileo himself tested this theory, Flemish mathematician, Simon Stevin had done a similar experiment which proved Galileo’s theory correct ("Galilei Galileo." Scientists: Their Lives and Works).Galileo also was the inventor of the first thermometer. Except his model was never accurate due to disregarding air pressure, but was perfected later on ("Galilei Galileo." Scientists: Their Lives and Works). Another notable contribution to physics was the determination that objects accelerate at a constant rate, which later helped Issac Newton develop the law of gravity. Throughout the series of experiments Galileo went through in his lifetime, he developed the scientific method. The scientific method is one of the building blocks of scientific research that aided Galileo in challenging Aristotle ("Galileo Galilei." Math & …show more content…

To aid him in his studies on space he improved a telescope that had a magnification power of around 30 ("Galileo Galilei." Math & Mathematicians). With this telescope Galileo was able to discover Jupiter's moons, the Milky Way, and mountains on the moon ("Galileo Galilei." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online). One of the biggest of his astronomical theories was that the center of the universe was the sun instead of the Earth, which was common belief at the time. Just believing this idea goes against the church and can result in death. Galileo was not able to fully prove this theory during his

Open Document