“Galileo Galilei: Unveiling the Secrets of the Universe”

Md Kauser Islam Robayet, Ahsan Habib Shawon, Pullock Dus, Hashimi Rafsan Jami Rohan,
Md Saminur Ruman Sieam
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology
American International University Bangladesh, 408/1, Kuratoli, Khilkhet, Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh
e-mail: kauserislam09@gmail.com, srsieam2003@gmail.com

Introduction
❑ Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) has always played a key role in any history of science, as well as many histories of philosophy.
❑ His work in physics (or “natural philosophy”), astronomy, and the methodology of science still evoke debate after more than 400 years.
❑ He was the first to report telescopic observations of the mountains on the moon, the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the
rings of Saturn.
Image credit: ZU_09 via Getty

Early Life and Education

➢ Galileo was born in Pisa on February 15, 1564.
➢ As a teenager, Galileo became interested in the theories of Aristotle and Archimedes, and he started conducting experiments to test their principles.
➢ He never completed this degree, but instead studied mathematics, notably with Ostilio Ricci, a mathematics teacher attached to the Tuscan court and the
Florentine Accademia del Disegno.
➢ He visited Christoph Clavius, professor at the Jesuit Collegio Romano, and corresponded with the engineer Guildobaldo del Monte, Marchese of Urbino. In
1588, he applied and was turned down for a professorship in Bologna, but a year later, with the help of Clavius and del Monte, he was appointed lecturer in
mathematics at Pisa.
➢ In 1592, he obtained, at a much higher salary, a chair of mathematics at the University of Padua, in the Venetian Republic.
➢ He rushed these into print in Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), which appeared in March 1610 and launched Galileo onto the world stage.
Image credit: GeorgiosArt

Galileo’s Experiments & Inventions

Galileo’s Telescope Galileo’s Copernican First pendulum clock
The basic principle of the Galileo clock (and
indeed all mechanical clocks) is that the
energy in a coiled spring or the potential
energy of a descending weight is dissipated
in regular pulses. The mechanism to do
this is called an escapement because it
allows the energy to 'escape' from the
system. Galileo used a pinwheel and a pair
of curved pawls connected to a pendulum.
As the pendulum swings, one pawl lifts
clear of the pins allowing the wheel to
rotate until 'caught' by the other pawl.

There is some evidence that

Painting of Galileo Galilei displaying his telescope to Leonardo Donato.1754, H. J. Detouche.
In the spring of 1609, he heard that an instrument had been invented in the Netherlands
that showed distant things as though they were nearby. By trial and error, he quickly
figured out the secret of the invention and made his own three-powered spyglass from
lenses for sale in spectacle makers’ shops. Others had done the same; what set Galileo
apart was that he quickly figured out how to improve the instrument, taught himself the art
of lens grinding, and produced increasingly powerful telescopes.
➢ In August he presented an eight-powered instrument to the Senate of Venice, and he
turned a twenty-powered instrument to the heavens by October or November. With this
telescope he observed the Moon and discovered four satellites of Jupiter.
Galileo’s Achievement
Galileo Galilei is renowned for his significant achievements
contributions to various fields, including astronomy, physics,
mathematics. Here are some of his notable achievements:
• Discovering the four largest moons of Jupiter and observing the phases of
Venus, supporting the heliocentric model of the solar system.
• Formulating the principle of inertia and establishing concepts of uniform
acceleration and mathematical descriptions of falling objects.
• Emphasizing the importance of experimentation and observation in
scientific inquiry, contributing to the development of the scientific method.
• Facing conflict with the Catholic Church due to his heliocentric views,
which led to his trial and forced recantation.
Galileo's son Vincenzio
constructed a clock
according to this scheme
but did not manage to make
it work reliably. Sometime in
Galileo was thus effectively muzzled on the Copernican issue.
the nineteenth century, a
Only slowly did he recover from this setback. Through a model was made which was
student, he entered a controversy about the nature of comets
given to the London Science
occasioned by the appearance of three comets in 1618. After Museum in 1883 and is now
several exchanges, mainly with Orazio Grassi (1583–1654), a on display in their Time
professor of mathematics at the Collegio Romano, he finally Measurement gallery. The
entered the argument under his own name. Il saggiatore (The model is often running:
here are some pictures-
Assayer), published in 1623, was a brilliant polemic on physical
reality and an exposition of the new scientific method. Galileo
here discussed the method of the newly emerging science,
arguing: Death & Legacy
and ➢ Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which
and stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be ❖ Galileo continued to receive visitors until his death on
understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language 8 January 1642, aged 77, following a fever and heart
and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the
palpitations. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando
language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles,
circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly II, wished to bury him in the main body of the
impossible to understand a single word of it. Basilica of Santa Croce, next to the tombs of his
father and other ancestors, and to erect a marble
Others Inventions mausoleum in his honour.
• Galilean telescope ❖ These plans were dropped, however, after Pope
• Hydrostatic balance
Urban VIII and his nephew, Cardinal Francesco
• Thermometer Barberini, protested because Galileo had been
• Compass condemned by the Catholic Church for "vehement
suspicion of heresy". He was instead buried in a
small room next to the novices' chapel at the end of
a corridor from the southern transept of the basilica
to the sacristy. 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.
These fingers are currently on exhibition at the
Museo Galileo in Florence, Italy.

Acknowledgment: A Thank you to Encyclopedia Britannica , Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, University of Chicago Press, Rice University,
Stanford University Solar Center, Stanford University for its free online lectures on Relativity and JPL.

References
❑ Rice University: The Galileo Project
❑ JPL: Galileo Mission to Jupiter
❑ Stanford University Solar Center: Galileo’s Discoveries
❑ Drake, S. (1978). Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography. University of Chicago Press.
❑ Finocchiaro, M. A. (2010). Galileo. Oxford University Press.
❑ Sharratt, M. (1994). Galileo: Decisive Innovator. Cambridge University Press.