Galileo Galilei: Master of Science and Discovery.

The Science Quiz

The Science Quiz appears twice a week in the daily science page. The page is available to read on all days except Saturday in the epaper.

Questions

1. Which famous scientist’s heliocentric theory, published in 1543, did Galileo advocate, leading to the inquisition by the church?
2. Name Galileo’s book published in 1632 that led to the scientist being pulled up for heresy and which was also banned.
3. To refute the Aristotelian belief that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones because of gravity, from which iconic structure is Galileo said to have performed an experiment by dropping two spheres?
4. Which planet’s four largest natural satellites are called ‘Galilean moons’ as a tribute to the scientist, who observed them in 1610?
5. Many credit Galileo with the modern version of which commonly used instrument in astronomy that was originally invented by the Dutchman Hans Lipperhey?

Answers:

1. Nicolaus Copernicus
2. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
3. Tower of Pisa
4. Jupiter
5. Telescope

Visual

Created in 1597, this was Galileo’s first commercial scientific instrument. What is it called? SAGE ROSS (CC BY-SA 3.0)