Galileo Galilei and Aristotle Introduction Galileo and Aristotle were both discoverers. Both made important, but not necessarily correct discoveries, and we all know that. To find out, comparing and contrasting the lives of both discoverers and their works are necessary. Aristotle was born in Stageira, Chalcidice, Greece in 384 BC. He was trained and educated as an aristocrat when he was young. Later, at the age of eighteen, he went to a prestigious academy (at that time), Plato s Academy. He left only after Plato s death, which was twenty years later. Aristotle had studied almost every subject possible at that time, and also made significant contributions to most of them. In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy, economics, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology. In philosophy, he wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, psychology, rhetoric and theology. He also studied education, Plato (left) and Aristotle (right) in Plato s Academy foreign customs, literature and poetry. Galileo Galilei was first educated in the age eight in the Camaldolese Monastery at Vallombrosa. As a young man, he had wanted to be a priest. He enrolled for a medical degree at the University of Pisa at his father's urging though. He did not complete it. Instead, he studied mathematics. 1592, he moved to the University of Padua, teaching geometry, mechanics, and astronomy until 1610. During this period Galileo made significant discoveries in both pure science (for example, kinematics of motion, and astronomy) and applied science (for example, strength of materials, and improvement of the telescope). His multiple interests A portrait of Galileo Galilei astronomy. included the study of astrology, which in pre-modern disciplinary practice was seen as correlated to the studies of mathematics and Contributions Although Aristotle had a lot of theories that were wrong, this is a list of claims that include wrong and right: He claimed that human males had more teeth than females had (wrong); massive objects fall faster than less massive objects (wrong); he claimed that the moon was a
smooth perfect sphere (wrong); he also thought that: fire was hot and dry; earth cold and dry; air hot and wet, water cold and wet (not all these were necessarily all true). He also wrongly proved to the public that every other planet (including the sun) revolved around the Earth. Contributions made by Galileo Galilei: Galileo improved the refracting telescope by using his own knowledge on that; he invented and improved a Geometric and Military for gunners and surveyors to use; the compound telescope was perfected by him; he was one of the creators to develop the thermometer; he designed an escapement mechanism for a pendulum clock, a vectorial model of which may be seen here; he discovered Jupiter had four moons, and that Venus also had a similar phase; if Galileo hadn t observed from his microscope that planets such as Earth orbited the sun, we still might have thought that every other planet revolved around us; he was also one of the first Europeans to observe a sun spot; Galileo changed the belief that the moon was a perfect smooth sphere, but was actually rough surfaced and had mountains etc. like the Earth. Conclusion The better discoverer was more likely to be Galileo Galilei. The main reason for this is because he had made not as many mistakes, discovered as well as invented things that actually worked, and has proved earlier discoverers to be wrong. If he hadn t discovered that the original theories made by earlier famous people were wrong or that he invented the telescope, we would have still believed that the Earth was at the centre of the universe, or that there were no such things such as sun spots on other planets. We also might have still thought that the moon was a perfect sphere. Aristotle had made some mistakes, but that was just because his period of time was very long time ago, and had not enough sufficient technology.
Record of Sources Step 1a: Task Definition In your own words, outline the task that you have been given i. I have to write a two page report to compare and contrast the lives and discoveries/inventions of Aristotle and Galileo. St ep 1b: Task Specifics ii Text Information Needed (A list of questions to be answered). 1 Where and when were they born? 2 Which invention/discoveries made them famous? 3 Were any of them scientifically trained? 4 What discoveries/inventions did they find/make? 5 Did their background affect their career? 6 What educational background do they have? 7 Had they always wanted to become discoverers/inventors? 8 How much did their discoveries/ inventions affect modern life as we know it? 9 How many discoveries/inventions did find/make? 10 What reasons are reasonable enough for me to decide which discoverer/inventor is better? Non -text Media Needed (A list of Images, Sounds, Photos, Video, etc to be collected) 1 Pictures of the inventors/discoverers 2 Pictures of the inventors /discoverers works 3 Picture of Galileo Galilei s telescope 4 Picture of the inventors schools.
Step 2: Location of sources Location Why will this source location be relevant to your research? School Library Public Library School Website Wikipedia To find a book on the inventors/discoverers Find more ranges of books of the inventors/discoverers To find if the History department has any information on the discoverers/inventors To cross reference with the information that has already been collected No. Step 3: SOURCES TABLES Text Information (from sources such as Newspapers, Books, Websites, Surveys) Source Type Where you used Validity Digital Primary/ information and why Timeliness Correctnes /Paper Second Full Reference of Source chosen? (D or ary of source. s of source. P) (P or [Or why not used] Up-to-date? If checked, how? Proof? S) T1 D S http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Aristotle T2 D S http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Galileo T3 T4 Wikipedia: to view what other people s opinion (same as above) Go to the website and check the bottom of the page. (same as above) Just cross reference with other sources. (same as above) No. Non-text Media (for example Pictures, Sound, Animation, Video, ) Source Type Primary/ Secondary Full Reference of Source (P or S) Digital /Paper (D or P) M1 D S http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/galile o M2 D S http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aristo tle M3 M4 Where you used information and why chosen? [Or why not used] Wikipedia: because the pictures are under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, not copyrighted. (same as above) Validity Permission to use source. If Yes then provide proof. Yes: All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Yes: All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
Step 4: Raw Sources Use this table to make a copy of any important parts of digital media or quotes from Paper Sources that you might use label each (e.g. T1, M2) so you know which source each item came from No. Raw Dump T1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aristotle T2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/galileo M1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/galileo M2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aristotle i Your teacher, parents and friends should be able to understand the task by just reading your summary ii Add more rows to tables as necessary