Galileo Galilei

Biographical Section

Galileo Galilei father of modern science, Galileo Galilei is the giant thinker with which it spread a new way of doing science, founded on a robust method no longer based on direct observation of nature, but the use of scientific instruments.

Born in Pisa on February 15 1564 by parents from what today we would call middle class (his father is the musician Vincenzo Galilei, the mother of Julia Ammannati), Galileo carries out the first studies of literature and logic in Florence where he moved with his family in 1574. In 1581 at the behest of his father enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Pisa, but this discipline does not show a real interest. Leaving, therefore, University of Pisa makes bags and returned to Florence (Butts, 59).

Here, develops a passion for mechanical machines starting to build increasingly sophisticated, making observations and deepening mathematical physics under the guidance of Hostilius Ricci. Over time the formula some theorems of geometry and mechanics. The study of Archimedes in 1586 discovered the "bilancetta" to determine the specific gravity of bodies (the famous hydrostatic balance) (Butts, 59). In 1589, he obtained the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa which he retained until 1592, Vincent's father dies in 1591 leaving as head of the family at this time is interested in the movement of falling bodies and writes the "De Motu".

In 1593, Galileo was summoned to Padua where the local University offered him a prestigious chair of mathematics, geometry and astronomy. Galileo accepted with enthusiasm and remained there until 1610. Meanwhile in 1599 he meets Marina Gamba, who will give him three children: Maria Celeste, Arcangela and Vincenzo. And in this period that starts to move towards the theory Copernic analogue of planetary motion, supported by observations with a new instrument built in the Netherlands: the telescope. Galileo also will bring significant improvements to the instrument. In 1609, he published his "New Astronomy" which contains the first two laws of planetary motion. In Padua, Galileo with the new tool makes a series of observations of the moon in December 1609, January 7, 1610 is when looking at the "little stars" light near Jupiter. In March 1610 reveals the "Starry Messenger" that it is the four satellites of Jupiter baptize "Medicean Stars" in honor of Cosimo II de 'Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (Feyerabend, 27).

Only later, at the suggestion of Kepler, the satellites will be named with what are known today: Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto. The discovery of a bike that was not the center of the Earth begins to undermine the Ptolemaic theory of the cosmos. The astronomical theories of Galileo Galilei are soon deemed incompatible with the revealed truths from the Bible and the tradition of Aristotle. A first consequence is formal reprimand Cardinal Bellarmine. Galileo, after all, does nothing but confirm the theory Copernic ana, theory already known for some time. The Inquisition church did not listen to reason, boil this plant as a heretic cosmological and formally forbids ...