PHY 1632 - Galileo Galilei

Credits: 4

This course investigates the central role Galileo Galilei played in the development of modern science, both in terms of content and procedure. Galileo’s contributions will be put into cultural and scientific context through a comparison with the contributions of his predecessors and contemporaries; including those of Aristotle, Ptolemy, Tycho, Copernicus, and Kepler. The social, scientific and philosophical forces that Galileo faced in promoting a heliocentric model of the solar system will be considered. This examination will highlight the revolutionary ideas at the core of Galileo’s experimentally based natural philosophy, ideas which are central to the scientific revolution that continues to this day. Experiments similar to those performed by Galileo will be performed in the lab (e.g. Galileo’s inclined plane experiments) and examined in order to illustrate the scientific reasoning employed by Galileo in his works. Assigned reading and subsequent discussion will be based on both primary and secondary sources.
Fulfills: STEM requirements in LS Core.