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Home School Book Review
, April 07, 2017
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Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was one of the most important scientific figures of the Renaissance. In this short biography from homeschool curriculum publisher Beautiful Feet Books, author Jeanne Bendick briefly covers Galileo’s life from his birth to musician and cloth merchant Vincenzio Galilei and his wife Julia in 1564 at Pisa, Italy, to his death at Arcetri, Italy, near Florence in 1642, a month shy of his 78th birthday. Among his accomplishments were inventing the hydrostatic balance, the first kind of thermometer, the pendulum clock, and the geometric compass, and perfecting both the telescope and the microscope. Galileo was always asking questions. Is it possible to measure heat or to weigh air? Does the earth stand still or does it move? How fast do objects fall to the earth?
Along Came Galileo is a great introduction for young readers to the story of this fascinating scientist.
Rea Berg said in the Introduction, “One remarkable aspect of Galileo’s life was that he was very much a man of faith as well as science. Even while developing and establishing the scientific method, he firmly believed in the truth of scripture.” Jeanne Bendick’s best known biography is perhaps Archimedes and the Door of Science, and she has also written Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. One does not have to agree with all the views espoused by Galileo to recognize and appreciate his role in the scientific history of our Western Civilization.
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