Galileo Galilei: A Short Biography

By Doug West

Galileo Galilei grew up in a time when nearly everyone thought the Earth was the center of the universe and the Sun and the planets revolved around the Earth. His intellectual world was dominated by the work of the ancient philosopher Aristotle. Science as we know it today was just starting to emerge from the dark ages and it was blended with religion so that the two at were hard to distinguish between. Galileo’s work included a radial improvement in a parlor toy called a spyglass, which he turned into a working instrument of astronomy, the military, and mariners. With his small telescope he opened up the night sky and discovered the Moon isn’t smooth but rather covered with peaks and valleys similar to the Earth, that the planet Jupiter had moons that orbited the planet, and that the planet Venus showed phases as it orbited the Sun — similar to the phases of the Moon. Though his discoveries in astronomy were transformative, they spelled trouble for Galileo. Once the local clergy got wind of Galileo’s heretical views that the Earth was not the center of the universe, he was under intense scrutiny from the Church. He traveled to Rome, not once but twice, to defend his views on the cosmos. Escaping the penalty of imprisonment or being burnt at the stake, he was given house arrest for the remainder of his life. Working under house arrest, he was able to complete some the most important work of his life and he had his work smuggled out of Italy to be published without censorship. Take a short journey into the world of this amazing man and understand how he changed the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Doug West
• Release date: Jul 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310942624

Doug West

Doug West is a retired engineer, small business owner, and an experienced non-fiction writer with several books to his credit. His writing interests are general, with expertise in science, history, biographies, numismatics, and “How to” topics. Doug has a B.S. in Physics from the Missouri School of Science and Technology and a Ph.D. in General Engineering from Oklahoma State University. He lives with his wife and little dog “Millie” near Kansas City, Missouri.

Book preview

Galileo Galilei – A Short Biography

By Doug West, Ph.D.

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Smashwords Edition

Galileo Galilei – A Short Biography

Copyright © 2015 Doug West

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages in reviews.

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Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Early Years

Chapter 2 - Early Interest in Science and Experimentation

Chapter 3 - Galileo’s telescope

Chapter 4 – Astronomical Discoveries

Chapter 5 - Move to Florence

Chapter 6 - Galileo the Inventor

Chapter 7 - Accusations of Heresy

Chapter 8 – Publication of Dialogue

Chapter 9 – House Arrest and Latter Years

Chapter 10 - Scientific Legacy

Photo Credits

Selected Biography

About the Author

Preface

Welcome to the book Galileo Galilei - A Short Biography. This book is part of the 30 Minute Book Series and as the name of the series implies, if you are an average reader this book will take around 30 minutes to read or a little longer to listen to in audio format. Since this book is not meant to be an all-encompassing, thick biography on Galileo Galilei, you may want to know more about this fascinating man. To help you with this there are several good references at the end of this book. Thank you for purchasing this book and I hope you enjoy your time with Galileo Galilei.

Doug West

July 2015

Introduction

In Galileo’s world, the Sun and all heavily bodies rotated around the Earth. This was the view of the ancient philosopher Aristotle and was widely accepted. His time was a period of religious upheaval as the Catholic Church was in crisis over the Protestant Reformation, which had sown the seeds of discord within the