伽利略

伽利略(1564～1642年)

Galileo

全名Galileo Galilei

义大利数学家、天文学家和物理学家。父亲是一位音乐家，伽利略原本习医，後来把兴趣转向数学。1586年左右发明比重秤，使他蜚声全义大利。1589年发表的一篇有关固体重心的论文使他获得比萨大学数学讲师的职位。他否定了亚里斯多德认为「重量不等的物体其下落速度也不同」的论断，并证明落体遵循所谓「等加速度运动」规律，还研究了抛出的物体沿抛物线轨迹运动的运动规律。伽利略也是用望远镜研究星空的第一人，在1609～1610年初发表了一系列天文新发现，即月亮表面是不规则的，银河系是由众星组成的，木星有卫星（参阅Galilean satellite）。後来他因这些发现而出任托斯卡尼大公的首席哲学家和数学家职位。1611年伽利略访问罗马，他大胆说服教会相信哥白尼体系，结果和亚里斯多德学派教授起争执，导致教会在1616年宣布哥白尼学说是「错误的」。後来获准撰写有关哥白尼体系的着作，条件是在讨论时不作明确立场表态，1632年他出版了《关於托勒密和哥白尼两大世界体系的对话》一书。该书虽被赞扬是文学和哲学的杰作，但还是得罪了耶稣会，他未经异端裁判所的审判就被判涉嫌异端罪，并被迫放弃原有的主张。余生被软禁，但即使在1637年双目失明後，他仍努力不懈地写作和研究。

English version：

1564～1642年

Galileo

Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. Son of a musician, he studied medicine before turning his attention to mathematics. His invention of the hydrostatic balance (c. 1586) made him famous. In 1589 he published a treatise on the center of gravity in solids, which won him the post of mathematics lecturer at the University of Pisa. There he disproved the Aristotelian contention that bodies of different weights fall at different speeds; he also proposed the law of uniform acceleration for falling bodies and showed that the path of a thrown object is a parabola. The first to use a telescope to study the skies, he discovered (1609-10) that the surface of the moon was irregular, that the Milky Way was composed of stars, and that Jupiter had moons (see Galilean satellite). His findings led to his appointment as philosopher and mathematician to the grand duke of Tuscany. During a visit to Rome (1611), he spoke persuasively for the Copernican system, which put him at odds with Aristotelian professors and led to Copernicanism's being declared false and erroneous (1616) by the Church. Obtaining permission to write about the Copernican system so long as he discussed it noncommittally, he wrote his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632). Though considered a masterpiece, it enraged the Jesuits, and Galileo was tried before the Inquisition, found guilty of heresy, and forced to recant. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest, continuing to write and conduct research even after going blind in 1637.