The scientific biography of Galileo

Born in Pisa. Galileo can rightfully be called the father of modern experimental science. His father Vincenzo Galileo was a famous musician and eventually moved with his family to Florence.

Galileo began to receive education at the University of Pisa, where he was listed at the medical faculty, although he devoted most of the time to studying mathematics. His hobby resulted in the fact that Galileo became the head of the department of mathematics of this university. After the death of his father, Galileo moved to Paduya and took the position of professor of mathematics at the local university, the reason for the move, apparently, was prosaic: at the University of Padui they paid better than in Pisan.

In Padua, the three main topics of research were determined, which all their lives later occupied the scientist. Firstly, Galileo began the study of the bodies in a state of free fall-a work that will eventually lead to a real coup in mechanics. Secondly, he became interested in the new astronomical ideas of Nikolai Copernicus, see the principle of Copernicus.

Finally, he invented an instrument called “proportional compass”, which mainly provided itself to financially like most of Galileo’s inventions, a proportional compass is also widely used today. In winter - years, using the telescope of its own design, built on new ideas, originating in the minds of the Dutch optics of that time, Galileo was carried away by observing celestial bodies.

He was not the first to study the paths of the planets, but it was he who for the first time widely published the results of his observations and conclusions that follow them. He watched the satellites of Jupiter, the mountains on the moon, the rings of Saturn, although it made up the wrong idea of ​​their nature, the phases of Venus would be enough to doubt the ancient theory of Aristotle, according to which the earth rests in the center of the Universe, and support a new view of the world proposed by Copernicus.

His book “Dialogue about the two main systems of the world” is the eloquent defense of the Copernicus universe. It was Galileo's views on the structure of the world set forth in this book that served as the basis for his involvement in the court on suspicion of heresy. Already after the court, Galileo wrote another fundamental work “Conversations and mathematical evidence regarding two new branches of science”, which summarizes his discoveries in areas, which today are called material science and cinematics.

As in all other works of the scientist, in this work, Galileo emphasizes the importance of the experiment as a means of verifying theory.