Showing posts with label Galileo Galilei the Tuscan Artist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Galileo Galilei the Tuscan Artist. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Galileo's ship
I've seen debates about whether Galileo actually conducted certain experiments or not. On page 297 of The Tuscan Artist, Greco says that the ship experiment, in which an object is tossed straight upward on a steadily moving ship, only to fall at the feet of the person who tossed it, was performed in 1624. I hope it's true. He cites some works be L. Conti (1990), which were written in Italian.
Thursday, June 4, 2020
A few more observations on Galileo
I'm about 40% of the way through this biography. A few things I hadn't realized before:
1) Galileo wasn't actually working for Cosimo Medici when he discovered the moons of Jupiter and dedicated his article to them. He just wanted to work for them, because they could give him a job as Court Mathematician that would be 100% research, zero teaching. Some things never change.
2) I knew that Galileo did not invent the telescope, and that he based his work on that of Lippershey in the Netherlands. What I didn't realize is just how many people besides Galileo and Lippershey were making telescopes, and even pointing them at the moon.
3) Galileo made telescope eyepieces for the Republic of Venice (he was a professor in Padua) and signed an agreement not to disclose his secrets to anyone else. Then he turned around and gave some eyepieces to the Medicis. He really wanted to work for them
4) This makes perfect sense now that I've read it, but making telescope objective lenses was not the hard part, because those lenses have long focal lengths and hence small curvatures (large radii of curvature). The eyepieces were the tricky part because of the short radii of curvature.
5) The Republic of Venice was independent of Vatican authority and willing to protect his academic freedom. The Medicis? Not so much. Had he realized the implications of this fact, I'm sure that he would have stayed in Padua.
1) Galileo wasn't actually working for Cosimo Medici when he discovered the moons of Jupiter and dedicated his article to them. He just wanted to work for them, because they could give him a job as Court Mathematician that would be 100% research, zero teaching. Some things never change.
2) I knew that Galileo did not invent the telescope, and that he based his work on that of Lippershey in the Netherlands. What I didn't realize is just how many people besides Galileo and Lippershey were making telescopes, and even pointing them at the moon.
3) Galileo made telescope eyepieces for the Republic of Venice (he was a professor in Padua) and signed an agreement not to disclose his secrets to anyone else. Then he turned around and gave some eyepieces to the Medicis. He really wanted to work for them
4) This makes perfect sense now that I've read it, but making telescope objective lenses was not the hard part, because those lenses have long focal lengths and hence small curvatures (large radii of curvature). The eyepieces were the tricky part because of the short radii of curvature.
5) The Republic of Venice was independent of Vatican authority and willing to protect his academic freedom. The Medicis? Not so much. Had he realized the implications of this fact, I'm sure that he would have stayed in Padua.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Next book: Biography of Galileo
I'm reading Galileo Galilei, the Tuscan Artist by Pietro Greco. Two quick thoughts:
1) I learned that before Galileo dropped out of med school he invented a simple proto-watch to improve pulse measurements.
2) I didn't realize how much of the 16th century medical curriculum was based on Arab authors. The "Western" canon was more diverse than I realized.
1) I learned that before Galileo dropped out of med school he invented a simple proto-watch to improve pulse measurements.
2) I didn't realize how much of the 16th century medical curriculum was based on Arab authors. The "Western" canon was more diverse than I realized.
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