Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
The Human Face of Science: Mini-Exhibits
More favorite photos, with quotes, of famous scientists.
Photo A8a; From The Life
of Galileo Galilei,
by J.E.D. Bethune (London, 1830)
CREDIT: University of Rochester,
courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè
Children are told how Galileo confounded his elders by dropping a heavy rock and a pebble from the Tower of Pisa to show they hit the earth at the same time. It never happened. But Galileo did invent a new physics contradicting the "common sense" that heavy things must fall faster; he did love to publicly refute the old-fashioned philosophers; and to do that he did develop the method of systematic, practical experiments. Like many myths, the Tower of Pisa story is more true to the man than any single actual event.
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