Galileo Galilei
GALILEO?S LIFE AND
HIS CONTRIBUTION TO ASTRONOMY
Galileo was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. Galileo Galilei was born near Pisa, Italy, on February 15, 1564. Galileo was the first child of Vincezio Galilei, a talented musician, and Giulia degli Ammannati. In 1574, Galileo?s family moved from Pisa to Florence, where Galileo started his formal education (Drake, 1978). Seven years latter, in 1581, Galileo entered the University of Pisa as a medical student. In 1584, home on vacation from medical school, Galileo began to study mathematics and physical sciences. A Family friend and professor at the Academy of Design, Ostilio Ricci, worked on translating some of Archimedes, which Galileo read and became interested in. This is where Galileo got his deep interest in Archimedes (Shea, 1972). When returning to medical school, medical school became less appealing to Galileo, and his deep interests in Archimedes and mathematics drew him in, Galileo left without a degree in the spring of 1585 (Drake, 1978). Starting his studies, in 1585, in Aristotelian physics and cosmology, Galileo had to leave the University of Pisa before he got his degree, because of financial problems.
Galileo became renowned in 1588, when he gave a lecture at the Florentine
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