Physicist, astronomer and natural philosopher — Galileo Galilei (Pisa 1564 – Arcetri 1642) was an Italian physicist, astronomer and mathematician, regarded as the father of the experimental scientific method. He taught at Pisa and for almost twenty years at Padua, then became mathematician and philosopher to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. By improving the telescope he discovered Jupiter’s moons, the phases of Venus, lunar craters and sunspots, decisive evidence in favour of the Copernican system. In mechanics he established the law of falling bodies (distances proportional to the square of time), the principle of inertia, and the composition of motions in projectile motion, founding modern kinematics. His support for heliocentrism led in 1633 to trial by the Inquisition and to his recantation.
Curiosity
According to tradition, after his recantation he murmured «And yet it moves»; the anecdote is almost certainly legendary, but it has become a symbol of the freedom of science.
Theories and contributions
- Law of falling bodies — In uniformly accelerated motion, distance grows with the square of time: .
- Principle of inertia — A body not subject to forces retains its state of rest or of uniform straight-line motion (later taken up by Newton).
- Projectile motion — Composition of a uniform horizontal motion and an accelerated vertical one: the trajectory is a parabola.
Present in chapters
Linked atoms
14 linked atoms.
00 Grandezze fisiche, stime, equilibrio
01 Cinematica
04b Oscillazioni e moto armonico
06 Centro di massa
18 Induzione elettromagnetica
20 Relatività ristretta
- The paradox of light
- The three hypotheses
- The ether and the Michelson–Morley experiment
- The low-velocity limit
- Relativistic composition of velocities
- The equivalence principle
- From Galileo to Einstein