By Mohammad Ali Abdani, Mohammad Amin, Shahzeb Khan and Anusha Abdul Ali

There are many memorable personalities who left their mark on the world. Some of them are famous because of the good deeds they did for the needy and the unprivileged, whereas some are well-known for their intelligence. Galileo was one of those gifted geniuses whose wonderful discoveries in the field of science made this world a better place to live.

Galileo was born on February 15, 1564, in Pisa, Italy. He was a mathematician, astronomer and a physicist. Because of his remarkable achievements, he is known as ‘the father of modern science’.

Galileo’s contribution to science made our lives easier because he invented many things which we now use in our everyday life, for instance the thermometer! When Galileo invented thermometer, he had no idea of its usefulness in future but now thermometer has become an important tool for measuring temperature in various tasks.

One of his major discoveries was about the position of Sun in the Solar System. Galileo rejected Copernicus’s idea that the Earth is in the centre of the Solar System. Galileo put forward the idea that the Earth is not in the centre of the Solar System and other planets do not orbit around the Earth. Instead, Galileo claimed that in fact it is the Sun that is in the centre of the Solar System and all planets revolve around it.

Galileo also rejected Aristotle’s claim that heavier objects fall on the ground before lighter objects. Galileo made two balls of different sizes fall from the Pisa tower and argued that both balls — heavier and lighter — fell at the same time. He was also known for discovering moons of Jupiter, rings of Saturn and new phases of Venus.

We all are thankful to Galileo for his wonderful discoveries and ideas on the basis of which further discoveries were made in science and the world was able to progress.