Galileo: Scientist, Scholar, Rebel Essay -- essays research papers

Seventeenth-century European study was controlled by two powerful forces the Roman Catholic Church, headed by the Pope, and ancient philosophy dominated by the 2000-year-old ideas of the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. The Church had an overwhelming influence on the lives of most Europeans. During Galileos time one in twelve race living in Rome was either a cleric or a nun.1 The Church forbid any teaching that deviated from what was taught in the Bible. To follow out this control, the Church set up the Inquisition. Galileo was targeted by the Inquisition for his observations and experiments. 2 Because his teachings differed from the socially accepted ideas of Aristotle, the Inquisition believed he should be persecuted. Even though Galileos observations were much more factual than Aristotles and, more important, backed up by experiments and the use of the telescope, he was still sentenced to house arrest for life. Galileo Galilei was born(p) on February 15, 1564, in Pisa Italy.3 Ga lileo was born into a family considered nobility, and his father, Vincenzo Galilei, was an accomplished musician.4 Galileo was tutored privately and withal educated by his father until the age of eleven, when his family moved to Florence and sent him to a Jesuit monastery to study medicine.5 Three years after his son began school, Vincenzo was strike to learn Galileo had decided to become a monk. Somewhat angered, his father withdrew him from the monastery, and Galileo act his high school education in Florence. At age xvii Galileo began college at the University of Pisa, where he reluctantly studied medicine. 6 Throughout his branch term att demiseing the university, Galileo became more interested in mathematics than medicine. A court mathematician, by the name of Ostillo Ricci, noticed Galileo in his lectures.7 Impressed with Galileos knowledge, he urged Galileo change his major to mathematics. Against his fathers wishes, Galileo changed courses, and by the end of his setoff term he was a mathematics undergraduate.8 Galileo made his first important discovery while attending the University of Pisa. Galileo noticed a baseball swing lamp above him during a church sermon. Extremely bored, Galileo conducted an experiment to see if the join of time in between each swing was the same. Using hi... ...i. groom of Mathmatics and St. Andrews, Scotland, August 1995 available from http//www. history.mcs.standrews.ac.uk/history/mathmatics/galileo.htmlInternet. 4 ibid.5 Ibid.6 Ibid.7 squatting Meadows, The groovy Scientists. Oxford University New York, 1987, p. 35. 8 Deborah Hitzeroth and Sharon Heerbor, Galileo Galilei. Lucent Books Inc California, 1992, p.15.9 Ibid., p.16.10 J.V. Field, Galileo Galilei. School of Mathmatics and St. Andrews, Scotland, August 1995 available from http//www.history.mcs.standrews.ac.uk/history/mathmatics/galileo.htmlInternet.11 Ibid.12 Galileo Galilei- Astrology. Available from http//www.astrology.about.com/library/weekly/aa0zz00b .13 Ibid.14 Ibid.17 Ibid.18 Jack Meadows, The Great Scientists. Oxford University New York, 1987, p.41.19 Deborah Hitzeroth and Sharon Heerbor, Galileo Galilei. Lucent Books Inc California, 1992, p.24.20 Jack Meadows, The Great Scientists. Oxford University New York, 1987, p.44.21 Ibid., p.45.22 Giorgio De Santillan, The Crimes of Galileo. Time Inc University of Chicago Press, 1962, p.185.23 Ibid., p.257. 24 Ibid. 25 Jack Meadows, The Great Scientists. Oxford University New York, 1987, p.48.26 Ibid