Throughout history there have been many people who have made an impact on us. Galileo Galilei was one person who gave us many things with his discoveries and inventions in the 1600s, which developed more throughout the centuries. Galileo’s new inventions and discoveries dealt mostly with physics and astronomy. Galileo Galilei was a mathematician who gave us a new vision of the universe, and many of his discoveries and inventions are used today in the 21st century.

Mathematician, Not Medical Doctor

In 1581, when Galileo was about seventeen, his father Vincenzo enrolled him at the University of Pisa to receive a medical degree. Galileo showed no interest in becoming a medical doctor, and therefore did not take his medical studies seriously. Instead he attended courses that interested him, which were mathematics and natural philosophy. In 1583, Galileo went back home to Florence, bringing with him a professor named Ostilio Ricci. Galileo took Ricci to help convince his father to let Galileo pursue his interests and study the works of Euclid and Archimedes in mathematics, which in the end his father allowed him to study mathematics. Then in 1585, Galileo left the University of Pisa without completing his degree after giving up the course.

From 1585 to 1589, Galileo taught at many institutions throughout Italy. In 1586 Galileo wrote his first scientific book “The Little Balance,” which talked about the way Archimedes found relative densities of various objects using a balance. The year after that he went to Rome to the Jesuit Collegio Romano, to learn about the centers of gravity and to visit Clavius, who was a mathematics professor. In 1589, Filippo Fantoni gave Galileo strong recommendations to fill his seat as the head of mathematics at the University of Pisa. While he was teaching at the University of Pisa, Galileo wrote “De Motu,” which were essays that explained a theory of motion.

Discoveries of Scientific Law

Around 1590, Galileo had tried to come up with a law of falling bodies. When he realized he had made a mistake in his theory, he had to write to Paolo Sarpi, who was a mathematician and a consulter to the government of  Venetia. Later in 1602 he went back to work studying his theory of motion. While working with the studies of inclined planes and the pendulum, he created a correct law of falling bodies, which he found that projected objects will follow a parabolic-like path. The results he had come up with would not be published until several years later.

In May of 1609, Paolo Spari wrote a letter to Galileo telling him about a spyglass a Dutchman had shown in Venice. From those letters Galileo used some of his own skills as a craftsman and mathematician to create many different telescopes, which would have better visibility than the spyglass that the Dutchman had. After he had created a telescope with a magnification of about four times, Galileo learned how to make his own telescope lenses. As Galileo was making progress, he told Spari about his progress. Sarpi then later set up an appointment with the Venetian Senate, where Galileo demonstrated the usefulness of his telescope for military and commercial applications. Venetia gave Galileo a raise in salary, and the right to manufacture his telescope, but later they realized that these rights were worthless and froze his salary.

On the last month of 1609 and the first month of 1610, Galileo started using his telescope to scout the sky. He published his findings in a short book called “Starry Messenger,” in 1610. While looking through his telescope, he found craters on the moon, and proved that the Milky Way was made up of stars.  Galileo soon after discovered four moons of Jupiter, and at first had difficulty identifying them between each other. After long periods of observation, he could finally make accurate calculations about the revolution of the moons of Jupiter, especially after calculating the Earth’s orbit around the sun.

On June 25, 1610, Galileo first observed Saturn, with some difficulty from the weak telescope he was using at the time. Later he also witnessed Venus showing revolutionary patterns similar to the Moon. It was from this observation that Galileo thought that the universe revolved around the Sun, not the Earth. The information he observed supported the Copernican System. Galileo then began to believe that the Copernican theory was a physical fact instead of a mathematical calculating tool.

Then Pope Paul V ordered the cardinals to decide on the Copernican theory. They later came to a conclusion that the teachings of Copernicus would be forbidden. Galileo was not personally involved with the decision, but was then forbidden to have similar views as Copernicus. Galileo did not think that the Catholic Church would make a big deal of the Copernican theory, so he decided to publish his views. Several years later however, Galileo was called to Rome shortly after the publication of “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World – Ptolemaic and Copernican.” He was delayed though, because he was ill, as he had been for several years.

Galileo was found guilty at the trial in Rome once he finally arrived. He was then sentenced to prison for life. But instead of being put in a jail, he was instead sympathetically sentenced to house arrest. While he was on house arrest, he used a pendulum to create a theory on acceleration of bodies in free fall. He only made designs for the first pendulum clock, then died shortly thereafter. His son, Vincenzo, tried to make a clock from Galileo’s plans, but it did not prove successful.

Impact Upon Us Still

Galileo Galilei has created many tools in the science field that are still used today. He created many of the first telescopes, which some he kept for himself and some he gave away to a select few of the friends he wrote to. Galileo gave later times, including all times in our future, some very important scientific laws about gravity. A third contribution Galileo made to future times was a starting pathway to the beginning of the big discovery of what is now known as the universe.

Today there is still much unknown about the universe, much of it remains undiscovered because of complications that haven’t been solved. But because of Galileo, there is the ability to see far out into space using the same technology he used to view what he could see of the universe in the 1600s. His gravitational laws can even be used to help send spacecraft into space with a proper propellant that projects rockets into space. The law of falling bodies helps predict where the spacecraft is going to land using the parabolic-like path. The laws of gravity help give information on take-offs and landings.

Galileo started out his life working with mathematics and physics, he gave us many tools that could be  used to explore the universe, and today there are even more advanced stages of his inventions. Galileo’s father had wished for Galileo to become a medical doctor. While Galileo did not pursue his father’s dreams, he lead to many important theories and ideas that are in use today, and gave future scientists a core foundation that can be easily worked off of. These are the many ways that Galileo contributed to the large amount of scientific information still in use today.

References

Bellis, M. (2008). Galileo Galilei – Biography. Retrieved Oct. 16, 2008, from http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/a/Galileo_Galilei.htm

O’Connor, J., & Robertson, E. (2002). Galileo biography. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2008, from http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Galileo.html

Wilde, M. (n.d.). The Galileo Project | Biography | Home. Retrieved Oct. 14, 2008, from http://galileo.rice.edu/bio/index.html