st and innovator. Galileo Galilei was born in 1564 in Pisa, Italy to Vincenzo Galilei, a musician, and Giulia Ammannati. Galileo studied medicine at the university of Pisa from 1581 to 1585, but his real interests were in mathematics and natural philosophy and Galileo left the university in 1585 without a degree. It was during this time frame that Galileo began to doubt conventional science, since much of what he was being taught at that time as scientific fact was conflicting with the evidence which he saw in his hands-on medical observations. Following his period as a student, Galileo tried his hand at teaching. Galileo began privately teaching in Florence and he returned to the university of Pisa to teach mathematics in 1589. Galileo taught at the university of Pisa until 1592 when he was appointed professor of mathematics at Padua (the university of the Republic of Venice). Galileo's duties as a professor of mathematics at Padua were to teach Euclidean geometry and standard (geocentric) astronomy to medical students. The medical students at that time were expected to know some astronomy in order to make use of astrology in their medical practices. In Padua, he continued his physics research in the area of mechanics and astronomy. In the area of mechanics is where Galileo's most famous observations were exhibited. The traditional theory accepted by nearly everyone at that time was Aristotle's theory that heavier objects, when dropped from the same height as lighter ones, will fall at a faster rate. In opposition to this notion, Galileo stated that with the removal of outside influences such as wind resistance, both objects will fall simultaneously at virtually the same
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