- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was a philosopher and mathematician born at Pisa, Italy.
- Galileo was fond of study and learned Latin and Greek as well as music, drawing, and painting.
- When Galileo was about 20 years old, he watched a swinging lamp in the cathedral of Pisa and noticed that the same space of time was taken up in the movement from one side to the other, whether the distance passed through was great or small. From this fact he discovered what is called the law of the pendulum.
- Galileo's supporting of heliocentrism was polemic within his lifetime, when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system.
- Also at Pisa Galileo discovered the law of falling bodies.
- When he was 27 years old, Galileo was elected professor in the University of Padua. While there he made a new kind of thermometer and also a telescope.
- Galileo became both blind and deaf before his death, but he used to say that none of the sons of Adam had ever seen as much as he had.
Some facts about Galileo Galilei
