What inspired Galileo Galilei to become a scientist?

What inspired Galileo Galilei to become a scientist?

His father sent him to the university to study medicine, but young Galileo was more interested in science and mathematics. Galileo made one of his greatest discoveries as he sat in a cathedral of Pisa. As he watched a chandelier swing back and forth he noticed that longer and shorter swings took the same time.

What did Galileo invented that is necessary for astronomy?

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was part of a small group of astronomers who turned telescopes towards the heavens. The initial telescope he created (and the Dutch ones it was based on) magnified objects three diameters. That is, it made things look three times larger than they did with the naked eye.

Which scientific revolutionary influenced Galileo?

Each discovery drew Aristotle’s system further into question and lent ever more support to the dangerously revolutionary view that Galileo had privately come to hold—set out just a half-century earlier by a Polish astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus—that Earth traveled around the Sun.

What did Nicolaus Copernicus do for astronomy?

Nicolaus Copernicus was an astronomer who proposed a heliocentric system, that the planets orbit around the Sun; that Earth is a planet which, besides orbiting the Sun annually, also turns once daily on its own axis; and that very slow changes in the direction of this axis account for the precession of the equinoxes.

How did Galileo change astronomy?

He helped created modern astronomy Galileo turned his new, high-powered telescope to the sky. In early 1610, he made the first in a remarkable series of discoveries. He spent several weeks observing a set of stars near Jupiter as they revolved around the planet.

What discoveries did Galileo make with his telescope?

What did Galileo discover?

• Craters and mountains on the Moon. The Moon’s surface was not smooth and perfect as received wisdom had claimed but rough, with mountains and craters whose shadows changed with the position of the Sun.
• The phases of Venus.
• Jupiter’s moons.
• The stars of the Milky Way.
• The first pendulum clock.

What did Galileo do to contribute to science?

Galileo was a natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion, astronomy, and strength of materials and to the development of the scientific method. Read more below: Telescopic discoveries.

Why did Galileo look at Venus instead of the Sun?

Galileo turned his gaze toward Venus, the brightest celestial object in the sky – other than the Sun and the Moon. With his observations of the phases of Venus, Galileo was able to figure out that the planet orbits the Sun, not the Earth as was the common belief in his time.

Who was the first person to study astronomy?

One of the first mentions of astronomy by Galileo was in 1590 when he conveyed his belief in Copernicus’ work on heliocentrism. Galileo also references Kepler’s works as well. Upon hearing about this, Kepler urged Galileo to be more open about it politically and if need be move elsewhere if safety was a concern.

Why was Galileo a great inspiration to Isaac Newton?

Galileo was a great inspiration to Isaac Newton. Many scientists feared sharing their beliefs, as often the church differed in these beliefs. However, Galileo was not afraid to stand up to the church, even though he often didn’t have adequate prove to his theories.