GALILEO GALILEI

Webquest and trial

Amerio F., Consalvi B., Passeri S., Pelliccia S., Rulli B., Tatoni M., Vicario S. IV A

The historical context

The XVII century :

🌙 From 1618 to 1648 the Thirty Years’ War broke out;

🌙 The rise in power of France and England;🌙 The cultural differences in Europe;🌙 The Scientific Revolution;🌙 The “Baroque”;🌙 The Inquisition.

THE INQUISITION

🌙 “The Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition” ; originated in 1542 because of Protestantism;

🌙 It consisted in a system of tribunals;🌙 The Roman Inquisition prosecuted Galileo Galilei in 1633.

Giordano Bruno

🌙 He studied and taught Philosophy and Theology all around Europe;

🌙 He defended Copernicus’ thesis;🌙 His philosophy challenged the

Reformation;🌙 The meeting with Galilei.

Galilei’s biography

🌙 He was born on 15th February 1564 in Pisa, where, when he grew older, he studied Medicine, Mathematics, Law and Physics, although he never graduated.

🌙 He was engaged as a Maths professor in Pisa’s University in 1589, then in Padua (1592), where he spent the best eighteen years of his life, making a lot of scientific discoveries. The first astronomical treatise he published was “Sidereus Nuncius” in 1610.

🌙 From 1610 Galilei became a world-famous scientist.🌙 At the end of his trial he was forced to abjure all his

theories, in particular heliocentrism.🌙 He was condemned to life imprisonment.🌙 He died on 8th January 1642, at the age of 77.

The scientific method

Observation Experimentation

Hypotheses,models and

theories

Previsionsfrom

theories

Mathematic laws

Final testing

The compass

In 1597 Galileo Galilei invented the compass.

This instrument perfected the technique of mathematical

calculation in the military field.

In 1609 Galileo Galilei revolutionized the world.

Modifying a Dutch Project, he made a very powerful instrument: the

telescope (“tele” + “skopeo”) able to observe the sky.

The telescope

bibliography.

● The Little Balance (1586);

● On Motion (c. 1590);

● Mechanics (c. 1600);

● The Operations of Geometrical and Military Compass (1606);

● The Starry Messenger (1610; in Latin: Sidereus Nuncius);

● Discourse on Floating Bodies (1612);

● History and Demonstration Concerning Sunspots (1613);

● "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina" (1615; published in 1636);

● "Discourse on the Tides" (1616);

● Discourse on the Comets (1619);

● The Assayer (1623);

● Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632);

● Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two

New Sciences (1638);

● Treaty of the Sphere, 1656;

● Letters

a. Letter to Father Benedetto Castelli, 1613;

b. Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine, 1615;

c. Letter to the Prince Leopold of Tuscany (above the lunar

candor), 1640.

Sidereus Nuncius

🌙 It was published on 13th March 1610🌙 Galileo became a public figure🌙 The start of a Revolution🌙 The configuration of the lunar

landscape🌙 The discovery of the Milky Way 🌙 The discovery of Jupiter’s 4

satellites🌙 A small-scale model of the

Copernican Universe

● “Grande cosa è certamente alla immensa moltitudine delle stelle fisse”

● “la Luna non è ricoperta da una superficie liscia e levigata, ma scabra e ineguale, e, proprio come la faccia della Terra,”

● “Inoltre non mi pare si debba stiamo cosa da poco l’aver rimosso le controversie intorno alla Galassia, o Via Lattea , e aver manifestatosi senso oltre che all’intelletto l'assenza sua”

● “L’aver scoperto 4 astri erranti da nessuno prima di noi conosciuti né osservati che a somiglianza di Venere e Mercurio intorno al Sole hanno le loro rivoluzioni attorno a un certo astro cospicuo (Giove)”

Sidereus nuncius

This brief treatise is going to introduce all students of Nature to new great discoveries and the instruments by means of which they have been revealed to us. For example, it is an undeniable great thing to increase the number of stars previously visible by adding countless more, which are impossible to observe with our eyes. Another beautiful thing is to behold the surface of the moon , in spite of its being distant from us almost 60 earthly radii. The planet was discovered to be rough and unequal, with prominences, valleys amd chasms similar to the ones present on Earth, and not as smooth as it was believed. And even more important is to have ended the dispute around the Milky Way by making its true nature manifest to our senses and intellect. Similarly, demonstrating the nature of those stars which astronomers used to call “nebulae” will be just as pleasant. But the most important discovery of all is to have identified 4 moving stars neither known nor observed in the past. They have their periods around a certain star which they sometimes precede and sometimes follow, without ever departing from it more than a certain limit. All these facts were discovered and observed by me not much long ago with the aid of a spyglass, a device that I created by myself after being illuminated by the Divine Grace. Perhaps, in the future other things, maybe more remarkable will be discovered with the aid of such an instrument whose functioning, I am going to describe in the same way I was able to create it.

GALILEI’S DISCOVERIES

1.HYDROSTATIC BALANCE (1582)

2.PENDULUM ISOCHRONISM (1602)3. LAW OF FALLING BODIES (1604)4. STUDIES on “KEPLER’S NOVA”5. “STARRY MESSENGER”6. PROJECTILE MOTION7. MEASURE of the SPEED of LIGHT8. LAW of INDEPENDENCE of PERPENDICULAR COMPONENTS of MOTION9. GALILEAN RELATIVITY10. PRINCIPLE of INERTIA11. GALILEI’S PARADOX

GALILEO:

the process of a genius