Happy Birthday, Galileo!

[CalliArcale]

Galileo Galilei would be a whopping 442 years old today. He was born in Pisa, Italy in 1564. His contributions to both physics and astronomy are enormous. He is a legend, to the point where there is more attributed to him than he actually did. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> Perhaps the most famous of his acheivements are:<br /><br />* an early form of relativity<br /><br />* discovery of the four largest moons of Jupiter, and the first objects known to revolve around something other than the Earth or Sun<br /><br />* discovery of many optical double stars, part of an ultimately fruitless quest to find a star revolving around another star (there are many such stars, but they were beyond the limits of his equipment)<br /><br />* proof that the rate of falling objects is independent of mass; contrary to myth, he did not drop balls off the tower of Pisa to prove this, but rather rolled metal balls down an inclined plane<br /><br />* the first telescopic observations of sunspots and the first proof that they were in fact on the Sun's surface and not satellites of it<br /><br />* first observation and measurement of solar rotation<br /><br />* telescopic observations of mountains on the Moon<br /><br />* discovery of Saturn's rings (although he didn't know that's what they were; he initially thought they were very large moons, although their curious deformation and lack of motion over the course of many years ruled that out)<br /><br />He did get in trouble with the Church for some of these things; they were in particular troubled by the idea that Jupiter could have moons, that the Moon could have mountains, that Saturn might have appendages, and that the Sun could have clouds. Heliocentrism also bothered them, but not as much as the idea that heavenly bodies could be imperfect.<br /><br />One interesting historical tidbit: Galileo was very nearly the discoverer of Neptune. He definitely observed it, but due to inclement weather on critical nights, was unable to observe it more th <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[dragon04]

So, how big of a cake does one have to bake to place 442 candles?<br /><br />How many BTU's of thermal energy would they give off?<br /><br />How many watts of illumination?<br /><br />And perhaps most importantly, what kind of ice cream? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>