Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642)

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in 1564. He made many famous experiments and discoveries, including those on falling bodies and pendulums that initiated the science of dynamics. Galileo was an eloquent lecturer and attracted students from many countries. He pioneered in astronomy and developed a telescope with which he made many astronomical discoveries, including the mountainous character of the moon, Jupiter’s satellites, the phases of Venus, and sunspots. Because his scientific views of the solar system were contrary to theology, he was condemned by the church in Rome and spent the last years of his life in seclusion in Florence; during this period he wrote Two New Sciences. This book represents the culmination of Galileo’s work on dynamics and mechanics of materials. It can truly be said that these two subjects, as we know them today, began with Galileo and the publication of this famous book. Galileo died in 1642 and was buried in Florence.

From Mechanics of Materials, 4th Ed., by J.M. Gere and S.P. Timoshenko, PWS Publishing, 1997, pp. 835-42.