GALILEO GALILEI

REFERENCES Mary Bellis

BACKGROUND Born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564 Oldest of 7 children His father wanted him to study medicine At age 11 he was sent of to study in a Jesuit monastery Wanted to become a monk At age 17 he entered the University of Pisa to study medicine as his father wanted

THE LAW OF THE PENDULUM At age 20, he noticed a lamp swinging above him while he was in a cathedral. Interested in finding how long it took the lamp to swing back and forth, he used his pulse to time the swings. He discovered something that no one else had realized, that the period of each swing was exactly the same. The law of Pendulum is now used to regulate clocks.

THE SPYGLASS Galileo was determined to recreate the Dutch spyglass, after a day of experimentation, he built a 3-power telescope. After some adjustments, he brought a 10-power telescope to Venice and presented it to a highly impressed senate. His salary was raised and he was honored.

THE MOON If he decided to chose wealth and leisure, he might not have been so famous. Instead, On one fall evening, he trained his telescope on an object in the sky People believed it must be a perfect, smooth, polished body called the moon. Discovering that Galileo viewed the surface as uneven, rough, and full of cavities, many people disagreed with him.

JUPITER As time passed, his telescopes improved. On January 7, 1610 he turned his 30- powered telescope towards Jupiter and found 3 small and bright stars near the planet. One was located to the east, one to the west, all three in were in a straight line. The next day, Galileo again took a look at Jupiter, and found that all three of the stars now west of the planet, still in a straight line.

SATURN He made more discoveries with the new telescope. The image of bumps next to the planet Saturn, he thought, were companion stars. They were actually the edges of Saturn’s rings.