Galileo Biography

In the study of physics as a whole there are numerous names that are influential to the advancement of physics however there are two names that will always stick out as the founder and fathers of physics; Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. Galileo was born February 15, 1564 in Pisa Italy. He attended the University of Pisa from 1581-1585. He helped to mathematically describe ballistics, and the force of friction as it relates to motion. After experimenting with moving objects, he established his "Principle of Inertia", which was similar to Newton's First Law. Galileo realized that the speed of a falling body is independent of its weight he argued that that the manner in which a body falls does depend on it weight then for example; "a two pound rock should fall faster than a one pound rock. But if a person takes a two pound rock, split it in half and join the halves by a light string then one the one hand this contraption should fall as fast as a two pound rock, but on the other hand it should fall as fast as a

With discoveries in optics, motion and mathematics, Newton developed the principles of modern physics. Newton developed the three laws of motion. The three laws follow: An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of the object being accelerated) the greater the amount of force needed (to accelerate the object); and finally the last law of motion for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction(Louviere 3). Newton's three laws built from Galileo's discovery of the law of inertia and falling