(4) Galileo
It’s tough to imagine science without Galileo’s contributions, as evidenced by this terrific reel of nicknames: “The Father of Science,” “The Father of Modern Physics,” and “The Father of Observational Astronomy.” By vastly improving telescopes, Galileo was able to discover the phases of Venus, pick out the largest moons of Jupiter, and help prove that the solar system is heliocentric. His physics research laid the groundwork for the study of motion. On top of that, he survived an inquisition for discounting geocentric theories of the solar system.
(13) Stephen Hawking
Despite his struggle with ALS, Hawking is undoubtedly the only living theoretical physicist who’s also a household name. His resume speaks for itself: Cambridge professor, black hole de-mystifier, author of crossover science hit A Brief History of Time, and all-around quantum gravity guru. Plus, he’s got comedy chops; he’s made appearances on The Simpsons, Futurama, and Conan.
The Breakdown
Without Galileo, Hawking’s contributions to cosmology would never have been possible. Hawking, though, took the field to places Galileo never could have imagined. Both overcame huge hurdles in creating their brilliant works, but which one’s the bigger star?
[poll=35]
[See the whole bracket here.]
Comments (9)
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Must be Sexytime Saturday
posted by People in the Sun on 3-21-2009 at 2:02 pm
What the…?
On the bracket, Hawking is seeded at 13 & Galileo is 4, but here, it is reversed. Which is correct? This is very misleading…
In my opinion Galileo is more deserving of the 4 seed. He also gets my vote.
posted by Mike on 3-21-2009 at 3:19 pm
This was the hardest match up for me, but it’s gotta be Galileo. His theories threatened his own life, yet he published them anyway. He was nearly executed for saying the earth revolved around the sun. He reluctantly took it back, only to mutter, “still, it moves…” Way to get the last word in. He died confined to his bed while on house arrest. I have always said that if I had only one chance to travel back in time, I’d go to Galileo’s death bed and whisper “You were right.”
Yes, Hawking has a sense of humor, but Galileo was a snarky s.o.b. as well. As much as I respect and admire Hawking, and as much as choosing between these two breaks my heart, I have to go with Galileo.
posted by Amber on 3-21-2009 at 3:29 pm
There’s no way either of these guys deserves something as low as a 13th seed.
posted by Wilson on 3-21-2009 at 3:39 pm
Whoops, the seeds were switched for this one. Should be corrected shortly. Sorry about that.
Please don’t let this ruin your weekend.
posted by Jason English on 3-21-2009 at 4:27 pm
Tough call, but I’m going with Galileo on the strength of his (purported) last words: “Eppur si muove.”
posted by Jon. on 3-22-2009 at 2:29 pm
Galileo for being ballsy enough to put the theory out there despite the dangers from the Roman Catholic Inquisition.
posted by ray on 3-23-2009 at 3:47 pm
The motive for Kepler’s discoveries was to adjust the recorded observations to take account of Copernicus’s discovery that the Earth as the observation point was not stationary but orbited round the Sun. Galileo’s law of falling bodies v^2=d can be easily fitted into Kepler’s system. This is not generally known because the works of both Kepler and Galileo were prohibited reading on religious grounds.
posted by Peter L. Griffiths on 5-7-2011 at 11:36 am
Further to my comments of 7 May 2011, Galileo’s law of falling bodies v^2=d is reconciled with Kepler’s inverse distance law v^2=1/r, so that v^2=d=1/r, with d+r equalling the length of the major axis of the elliptical orbit. Let L be a small change, then
v^2+Lv^2=d+Ld=1/(r-Ld), this is the usual velocity measure. For the reciprocal velocity measure we have
v^2+Lv^2=r+Lr=1/(d-Lr). This reflects the two ways of measuring velocity, distance per unit time and time per unit distance, one of which is the reciprocal of the other. Any change of d is equal to the opposite change of r. Only three variables are required distance, time and velocity.
posted by Peter L. Griffiths on 5-12-2011 at 9:45 am