Galileo Galilei: Biography Example

Place of birth, family life, and Upbringing

Galileo was a philosopher and therefore studied different disciplines. He was born in Pisa in Italy, as first born in a family of six children. Galileo grew up in the environment that upholds the belief of Roman Catholic. His father was a Lutenist and therefore he prevailed to learned skepticism from him in tender age. Majority of the Galileos siblings learned values for their parents. For example, their last-born son became a Lutenist like his father. Galileos career as scientist, physician, mathematician, and a social scientist originate from his father and grandfather. The grandfather was a physics teacher at the university and therefore the life of Galileo was already influenced in the line of science. Some of the lessons such as a measure of rhythm and musical time were part of Galileos knowledge at the tender age. The study of experimentation and periods in music has helped Galileo to integrate the experiments in physics and mathematics (Marmot, 2017).

Education

As a young man, Galileo was interested in the priesthood. However, his father asked him to pursue medicine at Pisa University. During his studies as a medical doctor, Galileo discovered the idea of a pendulum as an accurate measure of the time interval. Besides, Galileo pursued mathematics after attending a geometry class and developed a passion for mathematics. The achievement of Galileo as physics student as felts in Pisa after he created a thermoscope and later published a book named hydrostatic balance. Galileo studied fine art at university.

Workplace and country

Galileo was appointed a chairperson in the department of mathematics in 1589. After the death of his father, Galileo moved to Padua University to teach geometry and mechanics. Galileo also taught astronomy and made various discoveries. For example, most scientists remember Galileo for discovering the kinematics of motion and telescope. The field of fundamental science and applied science benefited most from Galileos contribution (Jimenez et al., 2017). He advances the framework and broadens the perspective for the study of astronomy and mathematics.

Contributions

Galileo is remembered for the Copernican system. Galileo demonstrated physically the mystery of the rotation of the earth. Galileo used the theory of tide to help people understand the rotation of the earth. Galileo argued about the origin of comets in his book The Assayer that was published in 1618 (Sis, 2014). During this time, Galileo brought in the idea of heliocentrisms to dispute the existing knowledge about the earth as the center of the solar system by Aristotle.

Galileo will be membered because of his contribution to scientific methods. In this case, Galileo did research, compiled mathematical formulas and scientific experiments. The modern thinkers remember Galileo for coming up with laws of nature and the mathematical formulas.

Death and burial site

The researchers from various parts of the world valued the lessons from Galileo. As a result, many visitors came to seek ideas from Galileo until 1642. However, Galileo developed heart palpitations and fever that ultimately resulted in his death. Totally, Galileo died at the age of 77 after a long illness. He was buried next to a chapel in Italy. His burial was not without controversies because of the religious belief. Galileo was reburied in 1737 where the relatives erected a monument to honor his contribution in leaning (Reeves, et al., 2015). His tomb was near that of his relative.

Reference

Sis, P. (2014). Starry messenger: Galileo Galilei. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR).

Reeves, E., Van Helden, A., & Miller, D. M. (2015). On Sunspots: Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner. Aestimatio: Critical Reviews in the History of Science, 9, 97-102.

Marmot, M. (2017). Galileospeaking truth to power.

Jimenez, A. C., Galilei, G., Strathern, M., & Serres, M. (2017). How knowledge grows an anthropological anamorphosis. Cosmopolitics, 227.