The Phases of Venus

This a major breakthrough in the Heliocentric Theory!! The fact that Venus is not far from the Sun in the sky is very crucial to my theory. Venus is illuminated by the Sun from the CENTER of its orbit.

With the Ptolemaic System, Venus would always be in a crescent phase, which is definitely NOT true. Venus goes through phases, and as you can see by my diagram, in order for that to happen it needs to be orbiting around the Sun!

What's Up With The Phases of Venus?

I've also been using my wonderful telescope to observe the wonderful planet Venus! I've observed that the Venus goes through a full set of phases, just like the moon. As you can see, this completely rules out the Ptolmaic system, and supports the theories of both Copernicus and Tycho Brahe!


I'll explain the phases in my next post! Pretty excited right now!


Until next time, 

The MOON

Lately, I've been doing an intense study of the Moon with my telescope, and I've discovered a couple of new (and exciting!) things. The moon is not as perfect as the Ptolemaic system suggested, it is actually quite mountainous. It has craters, much like the Earth!

Seriously, Guys...

Okay, so remember that tides theory I told you all about? Well, people have been saying that it's a failure. First of all, how rude. Second, it's not. IT'S CORRECT.

Everyone, has been saying that if my theory were true, there would only be one high tide per day. I know, I know, it is true that there is more than one high tide per day, but really, it all depends on certain factors; the shape of the sea, the depth, etc.

I'm right, everyone else is wrong. That's just the way it is.

The Tides!!

I've come up with a theory about the tides in the seas; the tides are caused by the moving back and forth of the water as a point on the surface of the Earth sped up and slowed down due to the Earth's rotation on its axis and its revolution around the sun.  So simple!

I can also use this theory to defend the Copernican theory. It directly proves that the Earth IS in motion!

Until next time,

More about Inertia

People have argued that if the Earth were spinning on its axis, then people would all be moving at hundreds of miles an hour. So if you dropped a object straight down from the top of a tower, it would land backward of the initial dropping point instead of landing straight down. Basically, the previous idea was that if the Earth was moving, we would feel it. Just to prove this wrong, I likened the moving Earth, to a moving ship. According to the idea that if you dropped an object straight down it would go backwards, if I drop a ball from the top of the mast of a ship, it shouldn't land at the base of the mast. I dropped a ball from the top of the mast on a moving ship, and guess where the ball landed? That's right, at the base of the mast, as if the ship had not been moving at all.

Objects falling on Earth, move together with the Earth's rotation.

The Law of Inertia!!

What is inertia you ask? Well an object in motion possesses an inertia that causes it to remain in motion, with its same velocity and direction unless acted on by an external force. For example, a block of wood on a table. If you push that block of wood, it will come to rest if you stop pushing. Why? Because of Friction.
There are two opposite forces acting on this block of wood; the pushing force and friction.

If the force of friction was not acting on it, an object could be pushed across a table preserving a constant speed forever, even after it is no longer being pushed. The only way this object could be stopped or the constant speed interrupted is if an outside force acted on it.

The Falling Bodies Experiment

I've been doing some studies of motion lately, and right now I'm studying the law of free fall. I've been doing several experiments such as dropping objects with different masses to prove that all objects fall at the same rate due to gravity, and not due to their mass. I then decided to try this same experiment with inclined planes to slow the acceleration. I measured the distance of the ramp, and the time taken for the object to roll down. As I saw with my previous experiment, the objects rolled at a constant acceleration! 

Through my experiments, I've formulated a mathematical equation for a falling object or an object moving in uniform acceleration: d=1/2gt²

The Pendulum!

Something very interesting happened to me the other day. I noticed a lamp swinging above me while I was hanging out in the local cathedral, and I thought it might be pretty interesting to find out how long it took the lamp to swing back and forth. So naturally, I used my pulse to time the large and small swings, and I made an astonishing discoverery; the period of the swings were exactly the same! 

Since that encounter, I've been doing some studies of the pendulum, and from these studies, I have concluded quite a few things:

1) The period does not depend on the amplitude of the swing

2) Pendulums return very closely to the height of their release

3) All pendulums come to rest eventually, and the lighter ones come to rest faster than the heavier ones

4) The square of the period is proportional to the length of the pendulum

I've made a breakthrough!

Yes, I made some improvements to the telescope! No applause, please. I'm just a man improving the lives of astronomers everywhere. You can thank me later.

I found out about the original invention of using lenses to look into the sky in 1609. At the time, I was a mathematics professor at the University of Padua, but I immediately made it my goal to make the telescope better than anyone would've ever expected.  I experimented a lot; working with different lenses, and I finally realized in order to get a high amount of magnification, I would need a very weak convex (outward) lens, and a very strong concave (inward) lens.

Due to this invention, men can now look at things that are miles away, and they will look as if they are only a small distance away.

Until next time,

Ayo, I'm Galileo!

Hello! My name is Galileo Galilei. You know that telescope sitting in your house? You're welcome. Well, I'm here to tell you all about my life, my work, and basically the reasons why the Heliocentric theory is awesome, and Copernicus was right. He was an awesome guy, am I right?

First, I'll tell you a bit about my life. I was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15th 1564, and I was the first born of six children. My father was a famous music theorist and composer. Sadly, only four of my six siblings survived infancy. When I was about eight, the Galilei family moved to Florence, Italy.

I went through a many different stages of study in my life. When in Florence, I started to study to be a priest, but eventually left to pursue medicine at the University of Pisa. I never completed this study, and instead decided to study mathematics. In 1592, I was hired as a mathematician at the University of Padua. In Padua, I met Marina Gamba, with whom I had 3 children.

This is only my early life, but in this blog, I will tell you much more about my contributions to the scientific community.

Until next time,