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Line 2: − In June or July of 1609, word reached Galileo the telescope, which had been invented in Holland. Without knowing the technical details of the construction of the device, he managed to create one for himself. With it, he was able to witness a supernova, observe our moon, and document the phases of Venus. He also located sunspots. These discoveries helped support a heliocentric system.+ − The [[Catholic Church]] decided against Galileo in 1616 and said that 1) the immobility of the Sun at the center of the universe was absurd in philosophy and formally heretical, and that 2) the mobility of Earth was absurd in philosophy and at least erroneous in theology.<ref>http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/galileo.html</ref>+ − However, by 1741 the Church under Pope Benedict XIV bid the Holy Office grant an imprimatur to the first edition of the <i>Complete Works of Galileo</i>.<ref> [http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0005.html The Galileo Affair ]</ref>+ + + + + + +
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1564-1642 Italian physicist and astronomer who improved the [[telescope]] and was prosecuted for publishing certain heliocentric ideas.
1564-1642 Italian physicist and astronomer who improved the [[telescope]] and was prosecuted for publishing certain heliocentric ideas.
Until the sixteenth century, people believed the [[Sun]], [[Moon]], [[star]]s and [[planet]]s circled the [[Earth]]. Puzzled astronomers noticed that [[Mars]], [[Jupiter]] and [[Saturn]] sometimes seemed to move backwards. A Polish astronomer, Nicolaus [[Copernicus]] (1473-1543), said that if the earth and other planets circled the sun, spinning as they went, this explained what they saw. Few people believed him, because his ideas contradicted the teachings of the [[Bible]] and ancient [[Greek philosophers]].
Galileo tested [[Aristotle]]'s theory that heavy objects fall faster than light ones and found it to be in error. By making careful measurements he found he could use mathematics to predict how things fell and the movements of pendulums and tides. This was a new way of testing theories, but Galileo’s theories only worked if he assumed that [[Copernicus]] was right.
In June or July of 1609, word reached Galileo the telescope, which had been invented in Holland. Without knowing the technical details of the construction of the device, he managed to create one for himself. With it, he was able to witness a supernova, observe our moon, and document the phases of Venus. He also located sunspots. These discoveries helped support a [[heliocentric]] system.
Because the idea that the earth moves contradicted religious teachings, the [[Catholic Church]] decided against Galileo in 1616 and said that 1) the immobility of the Sun at the center of the universe was absurd in philosophy and formally heretical, and that 2) the mobility of Earth was absurd in philosophy and at least erroneous in theology. <ref> http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/galileo.html </ref> In 1632 Galileo published a book about tides, and against the Church's instructions discussed in it whether the earth or the sun was the center of the universe. Church authorities arrested him, forced him to say he was mistaken, and burned his book. Galileo went back to studying motion and mechanics.
Galileo's work was one of the first examples of the use of the [[scientific method]], involving testing a theory by experiment and observation.
In 1741, many years after Galileo's death, the Church under Pope Benedict XIV bid the Holy Office grant an imprimatur to the first edition of the <i>Complete Works of Galileo</i>.<ref> [http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0005.html The Galileo Affair ]</ref>
Stillman Drake of the University of Toronto [http://www.utpjournals.com/product/utq/701/galileo46.html] was for the last decades of his life the most original and important scholar to study this seventeenth-century physicist.<ref>[http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/imago/drake.html|The Stillman Drake Collection]</ref>
Stillman Drake of the University of Toronto [http://www.utpjournals.com/product/utq/701/galileo46.html] was for the last decades of his life the most original and important scholar to study this seventeenth-century physicist.<ref>[http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/imago/drake.html|The Stillman Drake Collection]</ref>