a legend story Galileo galiled,the great Italian scientist was probably more responsible for the development of the scientific method than any other individual was born in 1564,a legend story in the the city of Pisa.As a young man ,he studied at the university of Pisa ,but dropped out for financial reasons.Nevertheless,he was able in 1589,a legend story to obtain a teaching position at that university,A few years later ,he joined the faculty of the university of Padua and remind there until 1610.It was during this period that the bulk of his scientific discoveries were made. a legend story Galileo’s first important contributions were made in mechanics.Aristotle had taught that heavy objective fall at a more rapid rate than light objects ,and generations of scholars had accepted this assertion on the greak philosophers authority.Galileo, however decided to test it,
and through a series of exprements,he soon found that Aristotle had been incorrect.The fact is that heavy and light objects fall at the same velocity except to the extent that they are retarded by the friction of the air.Ilncidently,the tradition that a legend story galileo performance these experiments by dropping objects from the learning tower of Pisa seems to be without foundation.Having learned this ,
galileo took the next step.He carefully measured the distance that objects fall in a given period of time and found that the distance traversed by a falling object is proportional to the square of the number of seconds it has been falling.This Discovery (which imples a uniform rate of acceleration),is significant in itself.Even more important, galileo was able to summarize the results of a serious of experiment by a mathematical formula.The expensive use of mathematical formulas and mathematical method is an important characteristic of modern science.Another of Galileo’s major contribution was his Discovery of the law of inertia.Previously , people had believed that a moving object would naturally tend to slow down and stop unless so me force were exerted to keep it moving.But Galileo experiments indicated that the common belief was erroneous.If regarding forces,such as frietion, could be eliminated,a moving object would naturally tend to continue moving indefinitely.This important principle, which Newton restated early and incorporated into his own system as the first law of motion is one of the vital principle of physics.Galuleos most celebrated discoveries were in the field of astronomy.Astronimical theory in the early 1600s was in a state of great ferment ,with an important dispute going on between the flowers of the heliocentric theory of Copernicus and the adherents of the earlier gecentric theory .As Carly as 1604,Galileo had announced his belief that Copernicus was correct,but at that time he had no method of proving it .In 1609,
however,Galileo he and of the invention of the telescope in Holland.Although he had only the barest description of the device Galileo’s genius was such that he was soon able to construct vastly superior telescope himself with this new tool,he turned his observational talents to the heavens,and in a single year made a while serious of major discoveries.He he looked at the moon and saw that it was not a smooth sphere ,but had numerous eraters and high mountains on it . Celestial objects ,he concluded , were not smooth and perfect after all ,but had the same sort of irregularities that one obsureved on earth.He looked at the mikly away and saw that it was not a mikly nebulous body after all ,but was composed of an enormous number of individual Stars which were so far away that the naked eye tended to blue them together.He looked at the plants and saw that rings encircled Saturn;he also observed that four moons revolved around Jupiter.Here was clear evidence that an astronomical body could revolve about a planet other than earth,
He looked at the sun and observed sunspot’s.(actually other person’s had observed sunspot’s before him but Galileo publicized his observations more effectively and brought sunspots to the attention of the scientific world.He observed that the planet Venus had phases quite similar to the phases of the moon.This become a significant lives of of evidence corroborating the Copernicus theory that the earth and all the other plants revolve around the sun.The invention of the telescope and the serious of discoveries taht resulted from it made galileo famous.However ,by supporting the theory of Copernicus he aroused opposition in important church eirclece ,and in 1616he was ordered to refrain from teaching the coperriean hypothesis.Galileo chafed under this restrictions fro several years.When the popedied ,in 1623,he was succeeded by a man who had been an admirer of galileo. The following years the new pipe ,urban v11,hinted(though somewhat ambiguously)that the prohibition would no longer be in force . Galileo spent the next six years composing his most famous work ,the dialogue concerning the two chief world system .This book was a masterly exposition of the evidence in favour of the Copernicus theory,and the church censors.Nevertheless , church authorities responded in anger when the book appeared,and galileo was soon brought to trial before the Inquisition in Rome on charges of having violated the 1616 prohibition.In seems clear that many churchmen were unhappy with the decision to prosecute the eminent scientists.Even under the church law of the time ,the case against galileo was questionable,
and he was given a comparatively light sentence.He was not ,in fact ,confined to jail at all, but mearly to house arrest in his own comfortable villa in arcetri.Theoretically ,he was to have no visitors,but that provision of the sentence was not informed.His only other punishment was the requirements that he publicly recant his view that the earth moved around the sun .This the sixty ,nine years old scientists bdid in open court .(There is a famous and probably aoocryphal story that free he finished making his attraction, Galileo looked down to the earth and whispered softly,”it still moves .”)In arecetril he continued to write on mechanic .He died there ,in 1642.Galileos enormous contribution to the advancement of science has long been recognized .His importance rests in Parton his scientific discoveries such as the law of inrtial,his invention of the scientific discoveries such as the law of inertia,his invention of the telescope,his astronomical observation,and his genius in proving the Copernicus hypothesis.Of greater importance,however,is his role in the development of the methodology of science .Most previous natural philosophers, taking their cucs from Aristotle had made qualitative observation and calegorize phonomera but Galileo’s measured phonomena and made quantitative observation.This emphasise on careful quantitative measurements has since become a basic feature of scientific research.Galileo is probably more responsible than any other man for the empirical attitude of scientific research .it was he who first insisted upon the necessary of performing experiments.He rejected the notion that scientific questions could be decided by reliance upon authority, whether it be the pronouncements of the church on the assertion of Aristotle.He also rejected reliance on complex deductive schemes tht were not based on a firm foundation of experiment.Medieval scholastics had discussed at great lengths what should happen and why thing happen ,but Galileo insured upon performing experiments to determine what actually did happen,
His scientific outlook was distinctly nonmystical;in this respect ,he was even more modern than some of his succeded such as Newton Galileo,it might be noted was a deeply religious man despite his trial and conduction,he did not rejected either religion of the church,but only the attempt on church authorities stifle investigation of science tific Mathers .Later generations have quite rightly admired galileo as a symbol of revolt against dogmatism,and against, authoritarian attempted to stifile freedom of thought of greater importance however,is the role he played in foundering modern scientific method.
