Galileo Galilei
Physicist · 1564-1642 · Physics, stage 3: Meet the physicists
Replaced argument from authority with measurement as the way to settle questions about motion.
Overview
Galileo Galilei worked in Pisa, Padua, and Florence, and did more than anyone to make physics an experimental subject. He established that falling bodies accelerate uniformly regardless of their weight, that a projectile's path combines steady horizontal motion with accelerated vertical motion, and that motion persists without a cause, which contradicted the standing Aristotelian account. Turning a telescope on the sky in 1609 he found mountains on the Moon, four satellites orbiting Jupiter, and the phases of Venus, all of which supported the Copernican claim that the Earth moves. His defence of that claim brought him before the Roman Inquisition in 1633 and left him under house arrest for the rest of his life. Start with The Sidereal Messenger, which is short and reports the telescopic observations directly, then read the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems for the argument he was condemned for.
Where to start reading
The Sidereal Messenger 1610
A short report of the first telescopic observations of the Moon, the Milky Way, and the four largest satellites of Jupiter, written within weeks of making them.
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems 1632
A conversation between three characters comparing the Earth-centred and Sun-centred models, including the argument that motion shared by an observer cannot be detected from inside.
Two New Sciences 1638
Written under house arrest, this sets out his results on the strength of materials and on uniformly accelerated motion, and is the closer of his two dialogues to modern mechanics.
Part of
Sources
- Galileo Galilei Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Galileo Galilei Britannica
- Galileo Galilei English Wikipedia
