Galileo Lays The Foundations For Greatness

Galileo did not invent the telescope, as many people think.

But he undoubtedly improved the telescope and was the first to use it for astronomy, making several hugely important discoveries. But before that, let us look at how it all started for him.

Galileo was born into a noble family in 1564.

It might have been noble, but his family was not wealthy. Galileo would need a profession and it was decided by his father that it should go into medicine.

He started at the University of Pisa, and his studies went well but in addition to medicine, he became very interested in mathematics and geometry.

He got a private tutor but his father became worried he was neglecting his medicine studies and the tutor was dismissed.

Nevertheless, he was recognised as a brilliant student.

The university authorities admired his thirst for knowledge, but even at this early stage, they also disapproved of him.

Galileo was already starting to questioning the established laws of nature, as determined by Aristotle and Ptolemy, over a thousand years previously and now established as doctrine.

At this time, he created his first invention and it was an important one. This invention alone, would probably have been enough to justify his subsequent fame.

We now take for granted, pendulums in old clocks. Galileo invented the pendulum method of regulating a clock, after apparently watching a swinging chandelier!

His talents were duly recognised and he became Professor of Mathematics at Pisa university when he was just 25 years old.

With his new stature as a professor, Galileo began to openly question the dogma of Aristotle’s laws on nature.

He was particularly critical of Aristotle’s “law” that heavier an object was, the faster it fell if it was dropped. Galileo decided to prove this wrong.

He did this in a particularly public way, by carrying out an experiment on Tower of Pisa, in front of a huge crowd. He dropped a heavy object and a light object, together and they both hit the ground at the same time.

This was his first important step in dismantling the ancient system of dogmatic rules that was holding back scientific development.

However, his problems started. His robust attitude and these challenges to the scientific establishment, caused him to fall out with the authorities.

Under sustained pressure, he had to leave Pisa and the university. Fortunately, he manged to secure a position in the university of Padua, again as professor of mathematics.

Here in Padua, Galileo’s important work on telescopes and astronomy would be done, as I describe in Galileo’s Telescopes And Discoveries