The following presents a detailed report on Galileo. His early life, family life, education, and contributions are discussed. His specific contributions to astronomy are noted along with the controversy that resulted from his presentation of the Copernican System.
Galileo was a physicist, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher who was born in Italy in 1564 to his father, Vincenzo Galilei who was a musician and his mother, Giulia degli Ammannati. Galileo was the first of sixth or seven siblings, most believing it was six children. All born as nobility but not born to a rich family (Galileo, 2008). The family moved to Florence in the 1570s. Galileo never married but had a relationships with a woman named Marina Gamba who lived in his house and had three children with Galileo. Two daughters born, Virginia and Livia, who were each put in convents and became known as Sister Maria Celeste and Sister Arcangela. He left his son, Vincenzio with Marina Gamba in Padua when he moved to Florence in 1610 to take a position at the Court of the Mi family. Vencenzio joined Galileo in 1613 when his mother married Giovanni Bartoluzzi (Galileo, 2008).
By 1581, Galileo was a student at the University of Pisa where he studied the pendulum motion, as he watched a lamp swing back and forth in the Pisa cathedral. In 1602, Galileo made a discovery about the pendulum noting that the time when a pendulum swings back and forth is not dependent on the arc of this swing. This led to later discoveries about time intervals and the pendulum clock (Galileo, 2008).
At the University of Pisa, Galileo learned of the physics presented by Aristotle, but questioned the position of Aristotle regarding the belief that heavier objects fall at a faster rate than lighter objects. Galieleo stated and proved that all objects fall at the same rate in a vacuum regardless of
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