Galileo’s 5 Biggest Accomplishments

Galileo’s 5 biggest accomplishments include things that you have probably used at some point or even more – probably use every day. This Italian scientist is behind some of the biggest discoveries that were brought on by the Renaissance. While we have no direct indication of his intellectual merit, we might as well consider him as one of the smartest people who have walked the earth. On a side note, if you’re interested in seeing some of the smartest people who are walking it right now, take a look at our list of the 11 smartest people in the world.

Back on topic now, Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who also made some notable advances in physics, maths and was also an avid philosopher. He is the man behind some of the most widely quoted historical experiments and the father of certain devices which you will see below. He contributed to the then quite underdeveloped world of astronomy with many discoveries which were then considered controversial as people still believed the world was flat and the universe revolved around it. A huge supporter of heliocentrism (the scientific model which states the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun), Galileo was ultimately considered a heretic because of his discoveries which the Catholic Church strongly protested. His breakthroughs in science lead to the “Galileo affair” – a series of events where the man himself clashed with the Catholic Church and their strong lack of desire to let anyone claim anything that does not match with the pseudo-scientific claims of the church. Ultimately, this affair led to Galilei’s arrest and him being convicted of being “gravely suspect of heresy” and punished by indefinite imprisonment. Galileo was kept under house arrest until his death for about nine years.

However, this list aims to celebrate his discoveries and the firm push he gave science to get it on its way out of the dark ages. This man has been called the father of science by one of the brightest minds of the last century – Albert Einstein. Furthermore, one of the brightest minds who continue to push us forward in this century – Stephen Hawking – has said that Galileo has probably made a bigger impact on modern science than anyone else.