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Galileo Galilei
1564-1642
Galileo Galilei, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, is responsible for several important contributions to modern scientific thought. When, in the autumn of 1609, Galileo directed his 20-powered telescope at the moon, he became the first man to use the new instrument to study the skies. His discoveries proved that the earth revolves around the sun and is not the center of the universe as was commonly believed. Galileo's ideas were condemned as heretical and he was tried by the Commissary of the Inquisition and sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life. Because of his work in gravitation and motion and in attaching mathematical analysis to experimentation, Galileo is often referred to as the founder of modern mechanics and experimental physics. He championed the view that the most significant aspects of science were its method and its criterion of truth. |