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Galileo's Early Life
Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564. His father, Vincenzo
Galilei, was a musician. Galileo's mother was Giulia degli Ammannati. Galileo
was the first of six (though some people believe seven) children. His family
belonged to the nobility but was not rich. In the early 1570's, he and his
family moved to Florence.
The Pendulum
In 1581, Galileo began studying at the University of Pisa, where his father
hoped he would study medicine. While at the University of Pisa, Galileo began
his study of the pendulum while, according to legend, he watched a suspended
lamp swing back and forth in the cathedral of Pisa. However, it was not until
1602 that Galileo made his most notable discovery about the pendulum - the
period (the time in which a pendulum swings back and forth) does not depend on
the arc of the swing (the isochronism). Eventually, this discovery would lead to
Galileo's further study of time intervals and the development of his idea for a
pendulum clock.
On Motion
At the University of Pisa, Galileo learned the physics of the Ancient Greek
scientist, Aristotle. However, Galileo questioned the Aristotelian approach to
physics. Aristotelians believed that heavier objects fall faster through a
medium than lighter ones. Galileo eventually disproved this idea by asserting
that all objects, regardless of their density, fall at the same rate in a
vacuum. To determine this, Galileo performed various experiments in which he
dropped objects from a certain height. In one of his early experiments, he
rolled balls down gently sloping inclined plane and then determined their
positions after equal time intervals. He wrote down his discoveries about motion
in his book, De Motu, which means "On Motion."
Mechanical Devices
In 1592, Galileo was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of
Padua. While teaching there, he frequently visited a place called the Arsenal,
where Venetian ships were docked and loaded. Galileo had always been interested
in mechanical devices. Naturally, during his visits to the Arsenal, he became
fascinated by nautical technologies, such as the sector and shipbuilding. In
1593, he was presented with the problem involving the placement of oars in
galleys. He treated the oar as a lever and correctly made the water the fulcrum.
A year later, he patented a model for a pump. His pump was a device that raised
water by using only one horse.
Family Life
Galileo was never married. However, he did have a brief relationship with Marina
Gamba, a woman he met on one of his many trips to Venice. Marina lived in
Galileo's house in Padua where she bore him three children. His two daughters,
Virginia and Livia, were both put in convents where they became, respectively,
Sister Maria Celeste and Sister Arcangela. In 1610, Galileo moved from Padua to
Florence where he took a position at the Court of the Medici family. He left his
son, Vincenzio, with Marina Gamba in Padua. In 1613, Marina married Giovanni
Bartoluzzi, and Vincenzio joined his father in Florence.
Telescope
Galileo invented many mechanical devices other than the pump, such as the
hydrostatic balance. But perhaps his most famous invention was the telescope.
Galileo made his first telescope in 1609, modeled after telescopes produced in
other parts of Europe that could magnify objects three times. He created a
telescope later that same year that could magnify objects twenty times. With
this telescope, he was able to look at the moon, discover the four satellites of
Jupiter, observe a supernova, verify the phases of Venus, and discover sunspots.
His discoveries proved the Copernican system which states that the earth and
other planets revolve around the sun. Prior to the Copernican system, it was
held that the universe was geocentric, meaning the sun revolved around the
earth.
The Inquisition
Galileo's belief in the Copernican System eventually got him into trouble with
the Catholic Church. The Inquisition was a permanent institution in the Catholic
Church charged with the eradication of heresies. A committee of consultants
declared to the Inquisition that the Copernican proposition that the Sun is the
center of the universe was a heresy. Because Galileo supported the Copernican
system, he was warned by Cardinal Bellarmine, under order of Pope Paul V, that
he should not discuss or defend Copernican theories. In 1624, Galileo was
assured by Pope Urban VIII that he could write about Copernican theory as long
as he treated it as a mathematical proposition. However, with the printing of
Galileo's book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Galileo was
called to Rome in 1633 to face the Inquisition again. Galileo was found guilty
of heresy for his Dialogue, and was sent to his home near Florence where he was
to be under house arrest for the remainder of his life. In 1638, the Inquisition
allowed Galileo to move to his home in Florence, so that he could be closer to
his doctors. By that time he was totally blind. In 1642, Galileo died at his
home outside Florence.
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