Galileo Galilei Inventions

Galileo Galilei first invention hydrostatic balance; wrote La Balancitta (The little balance).

He invented early thermometer that unfortunately depended on both temperature and pressure.

Later he invented improved ballistics calculation geometric and military compass, which he later improves for surveying and general calculations and earns income from tutoring on its use.

Soon he independently invented and improved telescopes based on description of invention by Hans Lippershey

Galileo Galilei Biography

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa Italy, on 15 February 1564, the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei, a famous lutenist, composer, and music theorist, and Giulia (née Ammannati), who had married in 1562.

When Galileo Galilei was eight, his family moved to Florence, but he was left with Jacopo Borghini for two years. His parents educated him from 1575 to 1578 in the Vallombrosa Abbey, about 30 km southeast of Florence.

Although Galileo seriously considered the priesthood as a young man, at his father’s urging he instead enrolled in 1580 at the University of Pisa for a medical degree.

Up to this point, his parents deliberately kept away Galileo from mathematics, since a physician earned a higher income than a mathematician.

However, after accidentally attending a lecture on geometry, he talked his reluctant father into letting him study mathematics and natural philosophy instead of medicine.

He was appointed to the chair of mathematics in Pisa in 1589. In 1591, his father died, and family entrusted him with the care of his younger brother Michelagnolo.

In 1592, he moved to the University of Padua where he taught geometry, mechanics, and astronomy until 1610.

During this period, Galileo made significant discoveries in both pure fundamental science (for example, kinematics of motion and astronomy) as well as practical applied science (for example, strength of materials and pioneering the telescope).

His multiple interests included the study of astrology, which at the time tied to the studies of mathematics and astronomy.

Despite being a genuinely pious Roman Catholic, Galileo fathered three children out of wedlock with Marina Gamba. They had two daughters, Virginia (born in 1600) and Livia (born in 1601), and a son, Vincenzo (born in 1606).

Galileo Galilei Discoveries

Galileo Galilei studied speed and velocity, gravity and free fall, the principle of relativity, inertia, projectile motion. He also worked in applied science and technology, describing the properties of pendulums and “hydrostatic balances”.

His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus. The observation of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, the observation of Saturn and the analysis of sunspots.

Galileo’s championing of heliocentrism and Copernicanism was controversial during his lifetime, when most subscribed to geocentric models such as the Tychonic system.

Galileo Galilei Telescope

Galileo Galilei, in the following year, made a telescope with about 3x magnification. He later made improved versions with up to about 30x magnification.

With a Galilean telescope, the observer could see magnified, upright images on the Earth—today commonly known as a terrestrial telescope or a spyglass.

He could also use it to observe the sky; for a time he was one of those who could construct telescopes good enough for that purpose.

His telescopes were also a profitable sideline for Galileo, who sold them to merchants who found them useful both at sea and as items of trade.

He published his initial telescopic astronomical observations in March 1610 in a brief treatise entitled Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger)

Galileo Galilei Quotes

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.
In the sciences, the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man.
Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe.

Galileo Galilei Awards

Galileo Galilei was recently selected as a main motif for a high value collectors’ coin: the €25 International Year of Astronomy commemorative coin, minted in 2009.

This coin also commemorates the 400th anniversary of the invention of Galileo’s telescope.

Partly because 2009 was the fourth centenary of Galileo’s first recorded astronomical observations with the telescope, the United Nations scheduled it to be the International Year of Astronomy.

International Astronomical Union (IAU) laid out a global scheme, also endorsed by UNESCO—the UN body responsible for educational, scientific and cultural matters.

Galileo Galilei Contributions

He made original contributions to the science of motion through an innovative combination of experiment and mathematics. Galileo was one of the first modern thinkers to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical.

His work marked another step towards the eventual separation of science from both philosophy and religion; a major development in human thought. He was often willing to change his views in accordance with observation.

In order to perform his experiments, Galileo had to set up standards of length and time, so that measurements made on different days and in different laboratories could be compared in a reproducible fashion.

This provided a reliable foundation on which to confirm mathematical laws using inductive reasoning.

Galileo Galilei Books

Galileo’s main written works are as follows:
The Starry Messenger (1610; in Latin: Sidereus Nuncius)
“Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina” (1615; published in 1636)
“Discourse on the Tides” (1616; in Italian: Discorso del flusso e reflusso del mare)
The Assayer (1623; in Italian: Il Saggiatore)
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632; in Italian: Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo)
Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences (1638; in Italian: Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche, intorno a due nuove scienze)

Galileo Galilei Death

Galileo continued to receive visitors until 1642, when, after suffering fever and heart palpitations, he died on 8 January 1642, aged 77.

He was reburied in the main body of the basilica in 1737 after a monument had been erected there in his honour; during this move, three fingers and a tooth were removed from his remains.

One of these fingers, the middle finger from Galileo’s right hand, is currently on exhibition at the Museo Galileo in Florence, Italy.