The Mathematical Contributions of Galileo

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the significant contributions of Galileo Galilei to the field of mathematics. It provides a brief history of his life and then focuses on some examples of the contributions that he made to mathematics. The paper also discusses his misinterpreted-battle between science and religion and how it overshadows many of the other contributions that Galileo made during his lifetime as a scientist and mathematician.

From the Paper:

"We often hear of a Copernican revolution in science, but Galileo was the instigator of a much more fundamental revolution that influenced both science and mathematics. The worldview that Galileo created to replace the Aristotelian worldview that dominated at the time contended that the world was made up only of matter whose properties and motions could be described in terms of mathematics (Machamer). In other words, Galileo advanced the now-obvious notion that mathematics was nothing short of the language of the universe. Using mathematics, Galileo was able to describe and understand the mechanics of the universe, effectively gaining a deeper understanding of the way that the world is put together. This is Galileo's most significant contribution to mathematics. He removed the idle, superstitious philosophy from the study of the natural world and pushed mathematics to the forefront of natural inquiries, demonstrating again and again that it could be used to understand the way the world works."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Galileo's Contributions to Mathematics." Berrien County Math and Science Center. 23 Apr. 2007 <http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/biograph/bioggali.htm>.
• Machamar, Peter. "Galileo Galilei." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 4 Mar. 2005. 23 Apr. 2007 <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/galileo/>.
• O'Connor, J.J. and Robertson, E.F. "Galileo Galilei." Nov. 2002. 23 Apr. 2007 <http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Galileo.html>.

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