Galileo Galilei By: Mohammed Khatem

Grade : 11-C

GENERAL OVERVIEW

• Galileo Galilei was born on February 15 1564

• He is an astronomer, astrologer, Italian physicist, and a philosopher who was associated with the scientific revolution.

• He was also called and referred as the “father of modern astonomy”, the “father of of modern physics”, and the “father of science.

• Galileo Galilei died on January 8 1642.

EARLY CHILDHOOD

• Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy on 1564. Vincenzo Galileo, his father, was a famous musician.

• Galileo had 5 brothers and sisters • However, some believed he had 6. • When he was only 8 years old, his

family moved to Florence. • He was educated at the Camaldose

Monastery at Vallombrossa. • At the age of 17, he studied medicine

at the University of Pisa.• Two years later , he preferred to

study mathemtatics with Ostillio Ricci.

LATER ON

Galileo grew up to be a great astronomer and was given the chair of mathematics. In 1610, he formed his own telescope that was capable to magnify 20x more than regular telescopes. In fact, he discovered 4 moons of Jupiter with this magnificent telescope. Galileo published several books throughout his career. One of his most famous books was the “Sidereus Nuncius” { Starry Messenger} (Helden, 2008). Soon after discovering the 4 moons, he discovered that heaver objects fall faster than lighter objects. Years later, he discovered that all planets in the solar orbit and revolve around the sun.

CHURCH CONTROVERSY

Galileo received many warning and threatening letters from the Catholic Church. This is because he opposed the geocentric theory and supported the heliocentric theory. In fact, he even made the heavens not a spiritual place anymore. Thus, Galileo was sent to prison. Later on , he lived under the house arrest until he passed away on January 8th, 1642. However, most astronomers today accepted the heliocentric conception of the universe.

THE TELESCOPE

Although Galileo was not the first to invent the telescope, he was the first to use it scientifically to perceive and observe heavenly objects and record his findings and discoveries.. A basic tool that Galileo used was a simple bending telescope which only magnified 8x but he refined it to magnify up to 20x. The telescope has a convex objective lens and a concave eyepiece in a long pipe.

THE PENDULUM

When Galileo was studying at the University of Pisa, he began working and studying the pendulum. In 1602, he made an important discovery. His discovery concluded that the period ( the time in which a pendulum swings back and forth) does not depend on the ac of the swing. This idea contributed to the idea of a pendulum clock later on.

JUPITER’S 4 MOONS

• Because the 4 largest moons of Jupiter were discovered and found by Galileo , they’re named after him : “The Galilean Moons”

MOON OBSERVATIONS

• Galileo proved that the heavenly bodies weren’t perfect although the Greeks denied.

• In fact, Galileo drew the moon which looked like this to him

INCLINED PLANES

• As he performed a series of experiments, he also performed a significant experiment where he rolls balls of different masses down an inclined plane.

INERTIA

• When the ball reached the bottom of the plane , it continued to move forward on the level surface, even though no force was acting on it.

• Therefore, Galileo had acknowledged that the rolling ball or object overcome and possessed inertia.

INERTIA TODAY

Today, Inertia is defined as the tendency for an object to continue doing what it’s doing. In fact, a moving object will continue moving at the same speed in the same direction (unless an external force acts on or changes the objects direction)

INVENTIONS

Galilean Thermometer

Galilean Geometric and Military Compass

Galilean Compound Microscope

Galileo’s Telescope

FINAL YEARS

• Galileo passed away on January 8th 1642 (aged 77).

• In fact, his body and remains were awarded a great tomb when he died.

• His tomb is found today in Florence, Italy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Books:Mario Biagioli. Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of

Absolutism. University of Chicago Press. 1994. 416pp.

Stillman Drake. Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography. Dover. 2003. 560pp.

Van Helden, Al. The Galileo Project. 1995. 27 Nov. 2005.

• Websites: "PE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"Galileo Galilei: Experiments." Lycos. 22 Feb. 2009 <http://www.lycos.com/info/galileo-galilei--experiments.html>.