The story of Galileo and the Leaning Tower of Pisa is well Known in the history of science. At the age of 23, when he was working as a lecturer in mathematics in Pisa University, he read in a religious book that if two bodies of different weights are allowed to fall simultaneously from the same height, the heavy body will hit the ground first. In fact, this was a statement made by Aristotle. Galileo was the first man who proved this statement wrong.
For this he selected the 180 feet high Leaning Tower of Pisa. On the demonstration day, Galileo went up to the seventh floor of Pisa Tower with two metal balls weighing 100 pounds and 1 pound respectively. Thousands of people has turned up to witness his experiment. Among the Crowd were many professor had blind faith in Aristotle's statement given thousands of years earlier. They were freely abusing Galileo.
Galileo put the both ball on one edge of the roof very carefully. Some people among crowd became curious, but most spectators were whispering with each other that this man would prove to be a fool very soon by his own experiment. Galileo dropped both the balls simultaneously. The people were wonderstruck when the two balls hit the ground at the same time. In this way, many year-old superstition was proved wrong scientifically. People may differ about the truth of this story. However, it is true that Galileo could understand many facts about gravitation and that is why he could prove the truth by his experiment.
Galileo, even after 350 years of his death, is still considered as one of the greatest scientist of the world. He was the first man who disproved many old notions by his experiments, although there were no sophisticated instruments available at that time. This Italian scientist right from childhood was deeply interested in studying nature and science. That is why he could see every natural event within a scientific angle.
When he was 17 years old, one evening he went to Church to pray. It was getting dark and the caretaker was lighting the candles in the candelabra which hung from the roof by a chain. When he left it, it started swinging to and for. Young Galileo observed it keenly and noticed that the time taken in each swing was the same. There were no watches during those days to measure the timing, but being a medical student he knew that the beat of human pulse is fairly regular. To prove his observation, he counted the number of pulse beats for each swing. He observed that each swing, whether big or small, took the same time. On this basis, he made the wall-clock on this basis. This has developed into today's pendulum clock.
Galileo fabricated the first telescope. He has written in one of his books that when the news of his telescope reached Venice, the king Sing Aroia called him. The whole court was surprised to see this instrument. Many people went up the top of the Venice Church and saw the ships nearly 10 times nearer with the help of this instrument.
For about a month his telescope was tested by many people. With this instrument, Galileo later explored the universe. With his telescope, he saw the satellites of Jupiter. He also proved that our Milky Way is composed of millions of stars.
Galileo established the validity of the views of Copernicus. Copernicus had said that the sum is the center of the universe, not the earth. Galileo also said that earth is not the center of the universe, but like other planets it also revolves around the sun. When in 1616, he proved for the first time that the sun was the center of the universe, and earth revolves around the sun, he was summoned before the officials of the Church and was warned to stop this propaganda. Due to this binding he did not give any public speech till 1630.
It is said that after acute pressurization Galileo rose to admit his folly and discard his scientific beliefs. But his conscience rebelled and he was overcome with repentance. He looked towards the ground and said in a broken voice: "It is the earth which move around the sun." For this defiance, the aged scientist was put in prison. In 1637, Galileo became blind, and in January 1642 he passed away.