Galileo Galilei 1564-1542       Galileo Galilei was born on the 15th of February 1564 to Vincenzio and Guila Galilei. Throughout the span of his life he developed the foundations of the scientific method and through his careful observation based experiments he was able to make monumental contributions to the areas of Physics and Astrology. Among these he is credited with perfecting the telescope, creating a military compass for judging distances correctly,  discovering the four moons of jupiter, accurately describing the motions of objects in freefall and how the period of a pedulum is dependent only on the length of the pendulum string.     Though a devout Catholic throughout his life, he ran into trouble with the Roman Catholic Church after the publication of his work entitled "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems." His trial by the Inquisition centered around the accusation that he had been forbidden in 1616 by Cardinal Bellarmine and Cardinal Segizzi from holding or defending the Copernican theory, which was largely the topic of his publication.     The result of the trial was that Galileo had to recant his beliefs in heliocentrism (a sun-centered solar system), and had to live out the remainder of his life under house arrest. During this final period of his life, he developed his earlier work on the motions of bodies in free fall and the relationship between the length of a pedulum string and time it takes it to complete a full swing in a final publication called "Two New Sciences." Title Page Biography The "Why" of his trial Some of his contributions to Science Bibliography