Galilei, Galileo

Galilei, Galileo (1564-1642), Italian scientist.

Galileo attended the university in his home town of Pisa, studying medicine, and later became Professor of Mathematics there.

He was one of the first people to make a practical telescope and he made a number of scientific discoveries. One of these was the law of the pendulum.

Another was that objects of different weights fall at the same speed. According to a legend, he proved this by an experiment at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He dropped a 10-pound (4.536 kg) weight and a one-pound (.4536 kg) weight from the top and they both struck the ground at the same time.

In 1592 Galileo became Professor of Physics at Padua University and there made many important discoveries about the Moon and stars.

He supported the ideas put forward by Nicolas Copernicus. He said the sun was the center of the universe and he published a book about this, A Dialogue Concerning the Two Principal Systems of the World.

Galileo was a Catholic. The Church said it was wrong to believe that the sun was the center of the universe and forced him to deny what he said in his book.

See Galileo Galilei Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo