Galileo Galilei

A very well-known scientist, and I am sure you know him, was born in Tuscany, near Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564. His father, Vincenzio Galilei, give the baby his grandfather’s name, Galileo. Then it becomes Galileo Galilei. Galileo’s father wants Galileo to be a great and famous doctor just like his grandfather, Galileo Buonaiuti, that’s why he gives him his grandfather’s name. Galileo’s family was not rich but well respected. His father is a successful teacher and a musician at the same time. He teaches Galileo to play flute since his child. Galileo is a very likeable person. His character impressed me.

He was a man who makes friends easily. Yes, he has many enemies but he also has many friends who always help him. Especially The Medici family. Galileo has a very good relation with them. Since he was studying in Catholic Church, he also has some friends from the Catholic Church. Prince Federico Cesi (the founder of the Lyncean Scientific academy in Rome), Ascanio Piccolomini (The Archbishop of Siena) are just a few name of his friends.

Galileo was clever. Not just at his school lessons but also in finding out how the things around him worked. He also loved making many new useful things. In 1597, he made a weird thing called a “Geometric and Millitary Compass”. This was made up of two folding rulers with scales. When opened out, they could be used to make calculations. Not only that contraption thing, Galileo also made a telescope. Galileo’s telescope made us possible to see the moon, planets, and stars clearly. And in about two months, December 1609 to January 1610, Galileo made more discoveries that changed the world than anyone has ever made before. Galileo was too pushy and too full of shocking new ideas. Not only clever, he also a multi talent person. He learned about many different subjects, from science and art, to poetry and music. He also studied Latin and Greek.

The most impressed thing from him is that he is an opinionated man. He was sure that all objects fell to the ground at the same speed. It means that the object will hit the ground at the same time. He did a simple experiment to prove this idea. He believes that, same as Copernicus, the Sun is the center of the world and it is immovable, and the Earth is not the center and moves. This belief was rejected by so many people in that day. This belief made Galileo got many enemies. He struggled to preserve this idea. He wrote a book, “Dialogue of The Two Principal Systems of The World, in 1624, but published in 1632. He made the book showed both sides of the argument fairly. And the truth – as it so often does – came out in the end. 

We can see that Galileo was a very great person. He was a man who always tried hard and uneasy to give up, especially in his own opinion. We can try to be like him in order to get a better future.