Galileo Galilei
...cal degree at the University of Pisa. The next year Galileo attended a course on Euclid's Elements taught by a mathematician named Ostilio Ricci. Ostilio Ricci was a very influential person in Galileo’s life. When Galileo returned home for the summer he invited his teacher Ostilio Ricci to his house where he persuaded Galileo’s father to let Galileo study mathematics and the works of Euclid and Archimedes. By 1585 Galileo gave up his medical future and left without completing his degree. Galileo began teaching mathematics first privately and then eventually publicly. During the summer of 1586 he taught at Vallombrosa. In 1588 Galileo received an invitation to lecture at the Academy in Florence and finally in 1589 Galileo was hired to teach mathematics at the University of Pisa. Galileo’s father died in 1591 and Galileo being the eldest son had to provide financial support for the rest of the family. His job at the University of Pisa did not pay enough so with a lot of hard work Galileo was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Padua. Around this time Galileo met Marina Gamba at Padua and began a relationship. Although they never married they did have children together. Galileo had two daughters that he put in convents named Sister Maria Celeste and Sister Arcangela. He also had one son named Vincenszio, which he left with Marina when he moved to Florence in 1610. Throughout the years Galileo made several significant contributions to science. He informally stated the principles later embodied in Newton's first two laws of motion. He is often ...