Galileo

He is famous partly for his real achievements in physics and astronomy, partly for legendary achievements (such as dropping cannon-balls off the Leaning Tower of Pisa), and partly for having been tried for heresy by the Inquisition and compelled

to recant his belief, now universally accepted, that the Earth moves in space.

Only in the last few years has the Catholic Church officially "reversed" his conviction. Yet his ideas, in spite of the violent controversy they stirred and the official condemna-tion they brought him, came to be generally accepted by educated opinion within a few years after his trial. Why were these ideas, though pronounced heretical, so widely and quickly accepted?

The reason for this swift acceptance, it will be suggested, is that Galileo's theories and observations, radical though they were, were badly needed by people who were trying to make sense of the physical world. The orthodox physics and astronomy of Aristotle and his successors, though hollowed by tradition and authority, as already--before Galileo's time--being severely strained on several theoretical and observational fronts.

Attempts to "save the appearances"--to fix up the traditional physics and astronomy so that they could continue to adequately explain the observed world--were becoming ever more elaborate, shaky, and inelegant.

There are two sciences with which Gal

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curve as impetus gave way to gravity, then a straight drop. This model does a fairly good job of representing the motion of a thrown ball or rock. By Galileo's day, however, this model of motion was not enough. Analysis of the motion of a new class of powerfully thrown objects--cannon balls--had become a matter of military interest, as much so as missiles or lasers are of military interest today. A cannon ball could carry two or three miles, still follow a nearly-flat path, and hit with tremendous momentum. There was thus a great pent-up demand for a theory of motion that would render the path of a cannon ball more readily comprehensible. It was this demand that Galileo's theory of motion met (Fermi and Bernardini 96-111). Although Galileo did most of his work as a physicist, it is for his discoveries in astronomy tha t he is most famous, and it was also his work in astronomy that got him in trouble with the Church. In astronomy, Galileo was not a great theoretical innovator--the heliocentric theory was proposed by Copernicus two generations earlier, and put in more developed form by Galileo's contemporary, Kepler. It is as an observer--the first to make serious use of the telescope--that he is remembered today, and as a p
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Copernicus Galileo, Ancient Greek, Nicholas Buridan, Catholic Church, Fermi Bernardini, Greek Archimedes, Tower Pisa, Middle Ages, Random House, Scientific Revolutions, ptolemaic theory, physics astronomy, cannon ball, motions heavenly bodies, laws explaining, motion thrown, aristotelian physics, theory motion, motions heavenly, heavenly bodies, impetus theory,
Approximate Word count = 1425
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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