On February 15 of 1564, I, Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in the Duchy of Florence, Italy. I was the first born of six. My father was Vincenzo Galilei, a well-known musician and music theorist, and my mother was Giulia Ammannati. In 1583, I began studying medicine in the University of Pisa. I soon became fascinated with mathematics and physics. I was on my way to becoming a university professor but, I unfortunately had to leave the university in 1585 before earning my degree. I continued to study mathematics. During that time I began my study on objects in motion and published The Little Balance which described the hydrostatic principle of weighing small quantities. When I received a teaching job at the University of Pisa in 1589, I conducted experiments with falling objects and produced my book Du Motion (On Motion), which went against the Aristotelian views about motion and falling objects. In 1592, I lost my job at the University of Pisa. I then began teaching geometry, mechanics, and astronomy at the University of Padua. When my father died in 1591, I was entrusted with the care of my little brother Michelagnolo. In 1604, I published The Operations of the Geometrical Military Compass. I also made a hydrostatic balance for measuring small objects. The same year I developed the Universal Law of Acceleration. Sometime close to 1609 I developed a simple telescope of my own. In the fall of 1609 I began observing the sky with my telescope. In March 1610, I published The Starry Messenger which said that the moon was not flat and smoother, but a sphere with mountains and craters. In 1612, I published my Discourse on Bodies in Water, which went against the Aristotelian explanation of why objects floated. In 1613, I published my observations of sunspots, which further contradicted the Aristotelian doctrine that the sun was perfect. In 1616, I was ordered to stop holding, teaching, or defending the Copernican theory regarding the motion of Earth. In 1623, a friend of mine was selected as Pope Urban VIII. He allowed me to pursue my work and even encouraged me to publish it, but it could not advocate the Copernican theory. So, in 1632, I published the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Though he claimed Dialogues was neutral, it was clearly not. The Church was against the book and summoned me to Rome. I was never imprisoned, but when I was threatened with torture I finally admitted that I supported the Copernican theory. I was then put under house arrest for the remainder of my life. While under house arrest I wrote Two New Sciences which was basically a summary of my life's work on the science of motion and strength of materials. Sadly I died on January 8, 1642.Without my work and evidence proving the Copernican theory people of today may still believe the Earth is the center of the universe and the church may have never dropped its opposition of heliocentrism in 1835. My studies have altered the way that modern scientists study, and their beliefs.
Sources:
"Galileo." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Credo Reference. Web. 21 January 2013
"Galileo." Galileo. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2011. Web. 21 Jan. 2013.
"Galileo." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Jan 21 2013.
