Why I chose Galileo to be my hero and the title for this blog.
It is not because Galileo was the first to use a refracting telescope to make important astronomical discoveries. In 1609 Galileo learned of the invention of the telescope in Holland.
It is not because Galileo As a professor of astronomy at University of Pisa, Galileo was required to teach the accepted theory of his time that the sun and all the planets revolved around the Earth. Later at University of Padua he was exposed to a new theory, proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus, that the Earth and all the other planets revolved around the sun.
It is not because Galileo faced In 1633 the Inquisition that convicted him of heresy and forced him to recant (publicly withdraw) his support of Copernicus. They sentenced him to life imprisonment, but because of his advanced age allowed him serve his term under house arrest at his villa
It is not because Galileo's originality as a scientist and his method of inquiry. First he reduced problems to a simple set of terms on the basis of everyday experience and common-sense logic. Then he analyzed and resolved them according to simple mathematical descriptions. The success with which he applied this technique to the analysis of motion opened the way for modern mathematical and experimental physics.
It is because Galileo did not yield to previously established ideas and theories most of which gained the power from metaphysical domains that included dogmas, relegion, superstition and other myths and legendary sources. Same as Galileo was, we are not against every metaphysical idea but we are for sceitificaly based thinking and behaving. I say this because I feel that there are people up till this present day of the 21st century who still live in what we can simply call the pre-Galileo era.
References:
It is not because Galileo was the first to use a refracting telescope to make important astronomical discoveries. In 1609 Galileo learned of the invention of the telescope in Holland.
It is not because Galileo As a professor of astronomy at University of Pisa, Galileo was required to teach the accepted theory of his time that the sun and all the planets revolved around the Earth. Later at University of Padua he was exposed to a new theory, proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus, that the Earth and all the other planets revolved around the sun.
It is not because Galileo faced In 1633 the Inquisition that convicted him of heresy and forced him to recant (publicly withdraw) his support of Copernicus. They sentenced him to life imprisonment, but because of his advanced age allowed him serve his term under house arrest at his villa
It is not because Galileo's originality as a scientist and his method of inquiry. First he reduced problems to a simple set of terms on the basis of everyday experience and common-sense logic. Then he analyzed and resolved them according to simple mathematical descriptions. The success with which he applied this technique to the analysis of motion opened the way for modern mathematical and experimental physics.
References:
