Talk:Galileo Galilei

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I know he was smart but surely he didn't steadily go back in time since he was born? Those birth dates (15 February 1564 - 8 January 1642) have to be wrong. He was over -20 years young when he died according to that. —This unsigned comment is by 213.122.56.24 (talk • contribs) .

I don't see what the problem is, there. Those dates put him at age 78 at the time of his death. —LrdChaos 05:10, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Your both wrong, he was 77 years old at the time of his death, he hadn't reached his birthday yet that year. And if those dtes are wrong, then wouldn't he be -77, this isn't in the BC's, he's not that old. Its easy to see this if you just apply yourself to the problem.

Regarding one of the quotes in the 'unsourced' section.

In the book I am currently reading (which isn't necessarily the authority on the subject of galileo) it states that when galileo said " The bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go" he was quoting Cardinal Baronius.

I believe it should be removed, any feedback on that? Rachel Ayres 05:44, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

In case anyone feels obliged to add the quote "Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so", there is evidence that this quote was not actually his. See the journal paper "Der messende Luchs" by Andreas Kleinert; NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin, Vol. 17, No. 2. (1 May 2009), pp. 199-206.

Regarding one of the quotes in the "unsourced" section:

"Surely, God could have caused birds to fly with their bones made of solid gold, with their veins full of quicksilver, with their flesh heavier than lead, and with their wings exceedingly small. He did not, and that ought to show something. It is only in order to shield your ignorance that you put the Lord at every turn to the refuge of a miracle." And this is then referenced to: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

I have tried to find this quotation in this source, or elsewhere in Galileo's writings, and I have, from time to time, inquired about it. But I haven't been able to find it. I wish that somebody quotable had said it, whether Galileo or somebody else. Please, can someone get a reliable citation for it? It is often repeated, so perhaps it should be retained with a cautionary statement. TomS TDotO 17:32, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

What may have been the source for many people's belief that Galileo said this has been located, Giorgio de Santillana's The Crime of Galileo, but we still don't have a good citation directly to Galileo for it. I've tried reading and searching through Galileo's Dialogue without success, and despite all due respect for de Santillana's scholarship, I have to conclude that he made a mistake in attributing it to Galileo's Dialogue - either some other work of Galileo, or some other author. Of course, I do not discount the possibility that I made a mistake. I'll wait another reasonable interval, but I see no reason not to warn the reader that this is not a verified quotation of Galileo without a direct and full citation. TomS TDotO 18:08, 16 September 2009 (UTC)