“ShkolaLa” welcomes all its readers who want to know a lot.
Once upon a time everyone thought like this:
The earth is a flat, huge nickel,
But one man took the telescope,
Opened the way for us to the space age.
Who do you think this is?
Among the world-famous scientists is Galileo Galilei. In which country you were born and how you studied, what you discovered and what you became famous for – these are the questions to which we will look for answers today.
Lesson plan:
The poor family where little Galileo Galilei was born in 1564 lived in the Italian city of Pisa.
The father of the future scientist was a true master in various fields, from mathematics to art history, so it is not at all surprising that from childhood young Galileo fell in love with painting and music and gravitated toward the exact sciences.
When the boy turned eleven, the family from Pisa, where Galileo lived, moved to another city in Italy - Florence.
There he began his studies in a monastery, where the young student demonstrated brilliant abilities in the study of sciences. He even thought about a career as a clergyman, but his father did not approve of his choice, wanting his son to become a doctor. That is why, at seventeen, Galileo moved to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Pisa and began to diligently study philosophy, physics and mathematics.
However, he was unable to graduate from university for a simple reason: his family could not pay for his further education. Having left the third year, student Galileo begins self-education in the field of physical and mathematical sciences.
Thanks to his friendship with the wealthy Marquis del Monte, the young man managed to obtain a paid scientific position as a teacher of astronomy and mathematics at the University of Pisa.
During his university work, he conducted various experiments, the result of which were the laws of free fall, the movement of a body on an inclined plane, and the force of inertia that he discovered.
Since 1606, the scientist has been closely involved in astronomy.
Interesting facts! The full name of the scientist is Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de Galilei.
It is said that, while a university professor in the town of Pisa, Galileo conducted experiments by dropping objects of different weights from the height of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in order to disprove Aristotle's theory. Even in some textbooks you can find such a picture.
Only these experiments are not mentioned anywhere in Galileo’s works. Most likely, as researchers today believe, this is a myth.
But the scientist rolled objects along an inclined plane, measuring time by his own heart pulse. There were no accurate clocks back then! These very experiments were put into the laws of motion of bodies.
Galileo was credited with inventing the thermometer in 1592. The device was then called a thermoscope, and it was completely primitive. A thin glass tube was soldered to the glass ball. This structure was placed in liquid. The air in the ball heated up and displaced the liquid in the tube. The higher the temperature, the more air in the ball and the lower the water level in the tube.
In 1606, an article appeared where Galileo laid out a drawing of a proportional compass. This is a simple tool that converted measured dimensions to scale and was used in architecture and drafting.
Galileo is credited with the invention of the microscope. In 1609, he made a “small eye” with two lenses - convex and concave. Using his invention, the scientist examined insects.
With his research, Galileo laid the foundations of classical physics and mechanics. Thus, on the basis of his conclusions about inertia, Newton subsequently established the first law of mechanics, according to which any body is at rest or moves uniformly in the absence of external forces.
His studies of pendulum oscillations formed the basis for the invention of the pendulum clock and made it possible to make precise measurements in physics.
Interesting facts! Galileo not only excelled in the natural sciences, but was also a creative person: he had an excellent knowledge of literature and composed poetry.
In 1609, a scientist heard a rumor about the existence of a device that could help view distant objects by collecting light. If you already guessed, it was called a telescope, which is translated from Greek as “look far away.”
For his invention, Galileo modified the telescope with lenses, and this device was capable of magnifying objects by 3 times. Time after time, he put together a new combination of several telescopes, and it gave more and more magnification. As a result, Galileo’s “visionary” began to zoom in 32 times.
What discoveries in the field of astronomy belonged to Galileo Galilei and made him famous throughout the world, becoming real sensations? How did his invention help the scientist?
Galileo Galilei combined his discoveries in the book “Star Messenger”, confirming the hypothesis that our planet is mobile and rotates around an axis, and the sun does not revolve around us, which caused the condemnation of the church. His work was called heresy, and the scientist himself lost his freedom of movement and was placed under house arrest.
Interesting facts! It is quite surprising for our developed world that it was only in 1992 that the Vatican and the Pope recognized that Galileo was right about the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. Until this time, the Catholic Church was sure that the opposite was happening: our planet is motionless, and the Sun “walks” around us.
This is how you can briefly tell about the life of an outstanding scientist who gave impetus to the development of astronomy, physics and mathematics.
A famous science and entertainment television program was named after Galileo Galilei. The host of this program, Alexander Pushnoy, and his colleagues conducted all sorts of different experiments and tried to explain what they did. I suggest watching an excerpt from this wonderful program right now.
“ShkolaLa” says goodbye for a while to look for and share useful information with you again and again.
Between his contemporaries was based mainly on the great discoveries he made with the help of a telescope. Indeed, they provided a lot of very important new knowledge about the celestial bodies, and almost each of them served as new proof of the truth of the system Copernicus. Spots on the illuminated part of the moon, broken outlines on the edge of the illuminated part of it, viewed through a telescope, turned out to be irregularities on its surface, and Galileo had already compared them with the mountains of our globe. Observing the sun, Galileo discovered spots on it, from the movement of which it became obvious that the sun was rotating around its axis. Observing Venus, Galileo saw that it had the same phases as the moon. (Copernicus already said that it must be so). Galileo discovered the satellites of Jupiter, and made many observations of them in order to determine the law of their rotation around their planet; he realized that the differences in time shown by clocks at different longitudes when observing an eclipse of one or another satellite of Jupiter could serve to determine the difference in these longitudes, and he tried to compile tables of the movements of Jupiter’s satellites that would have the accuracy necessary for this determination. The Dutch government understood the importance of this manual for navigation and asked Galileo not to abandon his work until it was completed; but death stopped it before it ended.
Galileo discovered the rings of Saturn. (Given the weakness of the telescopes through which he made his observations, this ring seemed to form part of the planet itself; the fact that it was separated from it by a distance was only seen Huygens). Galileo's discoveries also provided important new knowledge about the stars. He saw that the Milky Way consists of stars, the faint radiance of which merges for a simple eye into a light stripe; similarly, many of the nebulous spots turned out to be composed of stars.
Portrait of Galileo Galilei. Artist D. Tintoretto, ca. 1605-1607
But no matter how brilliant Galileo’s astronomical discoveries were, his discoveries in mechanics were no less important; Only his works raised it to the level of science. He dispelled previous erroneous concepts about the law of motion and found true ideas about it. Aristotle's false opinions about the essence of motion, while remaining dominant, greatly hindered the discovery of the laws of motion. Archimedes' concepts were the only basis for deducing truth. Guido Ubaldi and the Dutch mathematician Stevin already took the principles of Archimedes as the basis for their works and expanded some of them. But confused, completely erroneous concepts about movement continued to dominate. Before Galileo, there were almost no attempts to consider the facts of motion from a mathematical point of view. Galileo laid a solid foundation for mechanics with his research on the motion of falling and thrown bodies, the swing of a pendulum, and the fall of a body along an inclined plane. The laws of motion that he found and based on the concept of acceleration of free fall became the initial truths for all subsequent studies of the mechanical order of natural phenomena. Without Galileo's discoveries in mechanics, Newton's discoveries would hardly have been possible.
Galileo's students continued his work. One of them, Castelli (b. 1577, d. 1644), successfully applied the concepts of general laws of motion developed by Galileo to the movement of water and, thanks to this, successfully fulfilled the assignment given to him by Urban VIII to regulate the flow of rivers of the papal state. Another student of Galileo, Toricelli(born in 1618, died in 1647) became famous for the discovery that air has heaviness; This eliminated the erroneous opinion that nature abhors a vacuum (horror vacui).
A short biography of Galileo Galilei and his discoveries are interesting for both schoolchildren and adults. This is a scientist whose work gave impetus to the development of science, physics, mathematics, astronomy and other fields.
In the article we will tell you in detail about who Galileo Galilei is, what he is famous for, what contributions he made to science and what he discovered, what major astronomical discoveries were introduced into life, and what heliocentrism is.
Galileo Galilei - great man years of life 1564-1642), who achieved success in astronomy, physics, mathematics, philosophy and mechanics.
Born in Pisa (Italy) into a family rich in origin, but poor in property terms. At the age of 10 he began to study at the Vallombrosa monastery in the same country and studied there for 7 years until he went to receive higher education. He then became a student at the University of Pisa, studied at the Faculty of Medicine and acquired the title of professor.
In 1592, he was accepted into the department of mathematics as dean of the University of Padua, a wealthy and prestigious institution of higher education in the Republic of Venice. There he produced his greatest mathematical and physical works.
His first work about the discovery of the telescope was described in the Starry Messenger. From this moment on, Galileo began to actively explore all facets of human life and nature.
Using a telescope, he studies the stars and planets, describes their structure and movement, derives new physical and mathematical laws, and also acts as a philosopher, criticizing natural norms and customs.
For his reasoning and popularization of the Copernican theory, which was in dissonance with the Holy Scriptures, he was persecuted throughout his life by a group of the Inquisition. In 1633 he was even sentenced to prison, but was released 18 days later.
The Italian explorer, mechanic, philosopher and physicist spent his last years in his own villa. He was forbidden to publish his works, but Galileo wrote them at home, in his homeland. In 1637 he went blind, but before that he created his last book, in which he summarized all his observations and discoveries.
The great scientist died in 1642 in his home and was buried as a simple person. Already in 1737, his grave was moved and placed next to Michelangelo. After a while, the scientist’s publications began to be published. Ultimately, Galileo Galilei was rehabilitated only in 1992.
Galileo, like his contemporaries, professed the theory of two truths, one of which was found in the Holy Scriptures, and the second in the book of nature, which describes divine creations.
Despite his commitment to these ideas, he interpreted them differently, taking an anti-scholastic position. The Bible, in his opinion, should not be taken literally. It must be taken from an allegorical point of view. A person must study nature outside the Bible, otherwise there will be no benefit from such study.
When studying nature, you need to be guided by two main methods of knowledge:
While exploring nature, the scientist believed that reliable knowledge could be obtained by combining similar methods. At the same time, he said that experience is not reliable knowledge. Thus, the scientist concluded about the research methodology of science, consisting of observation with the formulation of a hypothesis, calculations and experimental verification of the proposed idea.
Galileo Galilei was a great Italian scientist. Since his student years, he learned the basics of physics, exact science, astronomy, mechanics and philosophy. He actively studied the philosophical reasonings of Copernicus, was a fighter against church scholasticism, created a telescope to study the celestial bodies and begin a new era in the field of astronomy.
With his invention and subsequent entry into scientific books, the scientist proved to the world the presence of mountains with valleys on the surface of the Moon. With this, he proved the previous scientists wrong that all celestial bodies are round and smooth.
Galileo also refuted the religious legend about the nature of the sky. He managed to discover four satellites of Jupiter, study the movement of Venus and find the solar rotation along the axis, explain what dark spots on the Sun and the Milky Way are.
Galileo proved that there is a geographical longitude and it can be studied from Jupiter and its satellites. In addition, he is the founder of dynamics, the law of inertia with free fall of bodies, he studied the oscillations of the pendulum, the movement of bodies and the addition of forces.
Galileo's main idea is the objective existence of the world and its divine origin. He also admitted the idea of indestructible truth and learned the composition of each material - the presence of atoms in them. He made his main discoveries in the fields of astronomy, physics and mathematics.
At the age of 45, the researcher was able to make his first telescope. He created a convex lens with a concave eyepiece. At first, his device made it possible to magnify the image three times.
The scientist then built a more advanced model that magnified 32 times and coined the term “telescope.”
Later, with the help of a new device, he was able to heliocentrically explore the world system and refute the views and laws of Aristotle and Ptolemy about the movement of planets, lunar vibrations, the rotation of the Earth and the Sun around themselves, spots on the Sun and the uneven surface of all cosmic planets and bodies.
Studying the biography of Galileo in more detail, it should be noted that in the field of physics he created several mechanical principles: the principle of relativity and the principle of constancy in the acceleration of gravity.
Galileo also discovered a constant period of oscillation with the addition of movements, inertia, free fall, the movement of bodies on an inclined plane, the movement of bodies that are thrown at an angle.
In mathematics, the scientist contributed to the theory of probability. In addition, he managed to create the basis of a set theory about natural numbers with squares.
In his Discourses and Mathematical Proofs of the Two New Sciences, Galileo described several thoughts about prime numbers. The first said that some of them are squares of integers, while others do not have this property at all.
In the second, we talked about the fact that every prime number has an exact square and there is a root for it, therefore there are the same number of exact square numbers with prime numbers.
In addition to the above inventions, Galileo was able to invent a hydrostatic type of scale to reveal the specific gravity of substances, a thermometer with a proportional compass for drawing, a microscope for studying insectivores, and an optical type of lenses.
Galileo microscope
He also actively studied acoustics with color theory, magnetism, hydrostatics, fortification, and measuring the speed of light with air density.
Galileo is the founder of many bold ideas and discoveries, the significance of which is great. He gained fame and became known as the celestial Columbus due to his cosmic discoveries, four Jupiter satellites, sunspots, lunar depressions, physical terrestrial and celestial homogeneity.
Interestingly, thanks to the discovery of the Milky Way, countless universal worlds have been proven.
The development of science has found its own recognition. His open laws, the creation of a telescope, and the proof of the correctness of Copernicus' hypotheses were of great importance.
In addition, due to his contributions to scientific methodology, further physical, astronomical and mathematical researchers emerged. If his contemporaries were guided by Aristotle and classified phenomena, then Galileo created quantitative types of observations, carefully measured natural phenomena and applied the empirical method of scientific knowledge of nature.
He was the first of all to insist that scientists must conduct experiments, expressing their theories, and not rely on the opinions of other authorities.
In addition, thanks to his philosophical discoveries and religiosity, he, despite the fact that he was condemned by the church, did not renounce his faith, but only opposed the intervention of the church in scientific discussions.
The scientist sharply separated scientific knowledge from religious knowledge and argued that nature cannot be studied according to biblical laws, but only with the help of mathematical and physical laws and experiments. Moreover, during this study one must rely on one's own reason. It is because of this that, centuries later, people will begin to admire the scientist and consider him a symbol of Protestants.
It should also be noted that the principle of relativity has brought great importance to science. Now time and space were not considered independently of each other, but were studied in a spatial four-dimensional continuum.
Thanks to his thoughts and discoveries, Galileo even compiled star horoscopes and foresaw the future. Interestingly, he saw from them that he would soon become blind. And so it happened.
The whole life of Galileo Galilei is a series of interesting and surprising observations and facts.
Let's highlight the most striking of them to make a full-fledged portrait of the hero:
Overall, Galileo Galilei is one of the prominent scientists of his time, who made great contributions to science and philosophy, devoting his entire life to them. His creations are invaluable; they allowed scientists to continue their exploration of space, physics and mathematics further.
“There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.” - M. Montaigne
GALILEO, Galileo (1564 - 1642)- great Italian physicist, mechanic and astronomer; one of the founders of exact natural science. His name is associated with the first observations of celestial bodies using a telescope.
In 1581, Galileo entered the University of Pisa, where he was to study medicine. However, he preferred independent studies in geometry and practical mechanics.
In 1583, Galileo Galilei, during a service in the Pisa Cathedral, looking at the chandeliers suspended from the ceiling on long thin chains, invented the pendulum.
In 1589, Galileo received a position as professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa. His work “On Motion” dates back to the time of Galileo’s stay in Pisa. In it he first argues against Aristotle's teachings about falling bodies.
Galileo used the famous “leaning” bell tower 55 meters high in his hometown of Pisa to conduct free fall experiments. Hired porters, by order of Galileo, dragged a cannonball weighing a hundredweight to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the scientist himself carried a half-pound cannonball from a culverin there.
Soon after the experiments, he made a report, the main idea of which was that light and heavy bodies fall at the same speed.
In 1592, Galileo took the chair of mathematics at the University of Padua in the Republic of Venice. In his treatise on mechanics, written for students, Galileo outlined basic theory of simple mechanisms, using the concept of moment of force.
In 1592–1610 his main works were written in the field of dynamics: on the movement of a body on an inclined plane and bodies, thrown at an angle to the horizon; his research dates back to the same time about the strength of materials.
Galileo was discovered by Galilei principle of relativity of motion. This is what Galileo said about the possibility of comprehending the relativity of motion: “Seclude yourself below the deck of a large ship and let flies, butterflies and other similar insects there. Let there also be a large vessel with fish swimming in it. Hang a bucket on top from which water flows drop by drop , and immerse yourself in contemplation. With some luck with the weather, during the journey you will be able to comprehend the principle of relativity." It is impossible to distinguish the uniform rectilinear motion of such a ship from rest while inside.
It is believed that Galileo Galilei was the first to use a telescope in astronomy. In 1608, Galileo made a telescope with thirty-fold magnification. Using his telescope, Galileo discovered that the surface of the Moon was as rough and mountainous as that of the Earth; that the Milky Way consists of myriads of stars; he observed the phases of Venus.
Galelei discovered 4 satellites of Jupiter. However, he was unable to prove to the professors of the Florentine Academy the existence of the satellites of Jupiter that he discovered, although they were perfectly visible through the invented telescope. Academicians categorically refused to look through the telescope!
Galileo said that he once saw Saturn looking like a decrepit old man with two sons who supported him by the arms and helped him move in space. When Galileo looked at him from a different angle, then, not seeing what for the first time reminded him of his sons, he exclaimed: “Did he really do it?” The thing is that Galileo’s telescope was weak, and he saw the rings of Saturn as two bulges on opposite sides of the planet. Sometimes the rings were positioned at such an angle that they appeared to have disappeared.
In 1610, Galileo made another discovery: he saw dark spots on the Sun, and argued that the spots must be on the very surface of the Sun. The Roman College, consisting of Jesuit scientists, among whom were good mathematicians, confirmed Galileo's telescopic observations.
As is known, the inventor liquid thermometer was Galileo. However, thermometers of his design could not always be used north of Italy, because The water in the thermometer simply froze in winter.
In 1612, Galileo mathematically substantiated Archimedes' law.
The thoughts about the structure of the world expressed by Galileo coincided with the views of N. Copernicus and G. Bruno. Galileo also believed that The earth revolves around the sun, and not the other way around.
Galileo considered the Moon to be similar in nature to the Earth; he explained the nature of the “ash light” of the Moon by the fact that its dark side at this time is illuminated by the light of the Sun reflected from the Earth, therefore, the Earth is one of the planets revolving around the Sun. Galileo also talks about the movement of Jupiter's satellites; in addition, Galileo observes the phases of Venus. It becomes clear to him: this phenomenon is explained by the movement of the planet around the Sun.
Back in 1597, Galileo wrote: “ To the opinion of Copernicus about the heliocentric system I came many years ago and, based on it, he found the causes of many natural phenomena.” Such statements served as a reason for denunciation of Galileo to the Inquisition, and Galileo failed to defend himself against accusations of heresy. In 1616, a decree was published according to which the work “On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres” by Copernicus was declared heretical and prohibited.
And in 1632, Galileo’s work “Dialogues on the Two Most Important Systems of the World – Ptolemaic and Copernican” was published, in which the author clearly sided with Copernicus. Galileo's book was withdrawn from sale, and against him the trial began. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1633 he was forced to publicly renounce the teachings of Copernicus. The Inquisition replaced imprisonment with house arrest, and Galileo remained a “prisoner” for 9 years.
Interestingly, after the death of Galileo Galilei, his friend Bishop Piccolomini commissioned a portrait of the scientist. The commission was completed in 1646, but it was not until 1911 that the art historian Jules van Bell of Ruhl discovered that the wide frame concealed part of the painting: astronomical sketches showing the Earth's rotation around the Sun, which in the portrait of the imprisoned Galileo scratching out with a nail on the wall out of sight In parts of the picture one could read the words attributed according to legend to Galileo: “But still she spins!”
In Siena near Florence, despite the papal ban, he wrote a treatise “Conversations and mathematical foundations of two new sciences concerning mechanics and the laws of fall.” This work summarized the works of Galileo on various problems of physics.
In the middle of the 16th century, the humanism of the Platonic school in Italy passed its zenith; its main time had passed. In the second half of the 16th and early 17th centuries. A specific philosophical area appears on the scene - the philosophy of nature. The philosophy of nature is a typical expression of Renaissance nature. Its homeland was Italy, the most famous representative of which was Giordano Bruno. In parallel with the philosophy of nature, a new natural science is developing, implementing a radical revaluation of old traditions and premises. It brings a number of epoch-making discoveries and becomes one of the most important sources of new philosophy. The philosophical and methodological foundations of science that dominated in the Middle Ages are discarded and new ones are created. The scholastic doctrine of nature, the highest level of which was reached by the Parisian and Oxford schools in the 14th century, essentially never crossed the boundaries of theoretical speculation. In contrast, Renaissance scientists put experience, the study of nature, and the experimental method of research in the foreground. Mathematics is gaining a prominent place; the principle of mathematization of science corresponds to the main progressive trends in the development of science, scientific and philosophical thinking.
The most important battlefield on which the battle took place between the new and old world, between the conservative and progressive forces of society, religion and science, was astronomy. Medieval religious teaching was based on the idea of the Earth as God's chosen planet and the privileged position of man in the universe. By studying astronomical objects, scientists of that time comprehended in practice the laws of motion of celestial bodies and laid down fundamental concepts for the development of another science - physics. Galileo Galilei became one of the founders of the fundamental laws of physics.
The founder of the experimental-mathematical method of studying nature was the great Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Leonardo da Vinci gave only outlines of such a method for studying nature, while Galileo left a detailed presentation of this method and formulated the most important principles of the mechanical world.
Galileo was born into a noble but impoverished family in the city of Pisa on February 15, 1564 (not far from Florence). The scientist’s father was a composer and musician, but it was difficult to live on the money he earned, and the latter worked part-time as a cloth trader. Until the age of 11, Galileo studied at a regular school, but after his family moved to Florence, he began studying at a school at a Benedictine monastery, and at the age of 17 he entered to the University of Pisa and began to prepare to become a doctor. Galileo’s first scientific work, “Small Hydrostatic Balances,” was published in 1586 and it brought some fame to Galileo among scientists. On the recommendation of one of them, Guido Ubalde del Monte, Galilei received the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa in 1589 and at the age of 25 became a professor.
Galileo taught mathematics and astronomy to students in accordance with the teachings of Ptolemy, and his experiments date back to the same period of time, which he carried out by throwing various bodies from the leaning Leaning Tower of Pisa to see if they fell in accordance with the teachings of Aristotle - heavy ones faster than light ones. The answer was negative.
In On Motion, published in 1590, Galileo criticized Aristotle's doctrine of the fall of bodies. Galileo's criticism of Aristotle's views caused discontent and the scientist accepted an offer to occupy the chair of mathematics at the University of Padua. The scientist's biographers noted the Padua period as the most fruitful and happiest in his life. Here Galileo found a family by marrying Marina Gamba and had two daughters: Virginia (1600), Livia (1601) and son Vincenzo (1606). In 1606, Galileo became interested in astronomy
For the triumph of the Copernican theory and the ideas expressed by Giordano Bruno, and consequently for the progress of the materialistic worldview in general, the astronomical discoveries made by Galileo with the help of the telescope he designed were of great importance. He discovered craters and ridges on the Moon (in his mind - “mountains” and “seas”), saw countless clusters of stars forming the Milky Way, saw satellites, Jupiter, saw spots on the Sun, etc. Thanks to these discoveries, Galileo gained the pan-European fame of “Columbus of Heaven.” Galileo's astronomical discoveries, primarily the satellites of Jupiter, became clear evidence of the truth of Copernicus's heliocentric theory, and the phenomena observed on the Moon, which appeared to be a planet quite similar to the Earth, and spots on the Sun confirmed Bruno's idea of the physical homogeneity of the Earth and the sky. The discovery of the stellar composition of the Milky Way was indirect evidence of the countless worlds in the Universe. In March 1610, he published Galileo’s works on astronomy in his work “The Starry Messenger,” and this was the beginning of his new life. Tuscan Duke Cosimo 11 Medici invited Galileo to become a court mathematician, and he accepted the offer, returning to live in Florence.
These discoveries of Galileo marked the beginning of his fierce polemics with scholastics and churchmen who defended the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic picture of the world. If until now the Catholic Church, for the reasons stated above, was forced to tolerate the views of those scientists who recognized the Copernican theory as one of the hypotheses, and its ideologists believed that it was impossible to prove this hypothesis, now that this evidence has appeared, the Roman Church makes a decision prohibit the propaganda of Copernicus' views even as a hypothesis, and the book of Copernicus itself is included in the "List of Prohibited Books" (1616). All this put Galileo's work in jeopardy, but he continued to work to improve the evidence for the truth of Copernicus' theory. In this regard, Galileo’s work in the field of mechanics also played a huge role. While still a student, Galileo Galilei observed in the cathedral of Pisa that chandeliers of different sizes and weights, but having the same length, also have the same periods of oscillation. He compared chandeliers with a pendulum and based on this he concluded that the period of oscillation of a pendulum will be longer, the longer the pendulum is. Since at that time mechanical watches had not yet been invented to measure time, Galileo used the beats of his own pulse to determine the period of oscillations.
The scholastic physics that dominated this era, based on superficial observations and speculative calculations, was clogged with ideas about the movement of things in accordance with their “nature” and purpose, about the natural heaviness and lightness of bodies, about the “fear of emptiness,” about the perfection of circular motion and others. unscientific speculations that are intertwined in a tangled knot with religious dogmas and biblical myths. Galileo, through a series of brilliant experiments, gradually unraveled it and created the most important branch of mechanics - dynamics, i.e. the doctrine of the movement of bodies.
Already in 1616, Galileo was accused of striving for heresy, since the teachings of Copernicus were recognized as false this year by 11 theologians and Copernicus’s book “On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres” was included in the index of prohibited books; accordingly, any propaganda of the teachings of Copernicus was prohibited.
In 1623, under the name of Urban V111, Galileo's friend Cardinal Maffeo Barberini became pope and Galileo hoped for the lifting of the above ban, but having received a refusal, he returned to Florence. There Galileo continued to work on his book “Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World” and in 1632 it was published. The publication of the book caused a sharp reaction from the church and the scientist was summoned to Rome. In one of his letters, Galileo wrote: “I arrived in Rome on February 10, 1633 and relied on the mercy of the Inquisition and the Holy Father... First they locked me in the Trinity Castle on the mountain, and the next day the commissioner of the Inquisition visited me and took me away in his carriage. On the way, he asked me various questions and expressed the wish that I would stop the scandal caused in Italy by my discovery concerning the movement of the earth... To all the mathematical proofs that I could oppose to him, he answered me with words from the Holy Scriptures: “The earth was and will be motionless forever and ever."
The investigation into Galileo's case lasted from April to June 1633, and on June 22, Galileo pronounced the text of renunciation before the Inquisition court, and after that he was exiled to his villa. While under house arrest, Galileo writes “Conversations and mathematical proofs concerning two new areas of science”, where in particular he sets out the fundamentals of dynamics (the law of free fall, the law of addition of displacements, the doctrine of the resistance of materials), but they refuse to print the book and it is published only in Holland in July 1638, however, the blind scientist was never able to see his work with his own eyes, but could only touch it with his hands.
In November 1979, Pope John Paul 11 officially admitted that the Inquisition in 1633 made a mistake against the scientist by forcing him to forcibly renounce the Copernican theory.
