Book review of "Galileo" by Stillman Drake

Book review of "Galileo" by Stillman Drake
Sterling Publishing, 1980, 2010

Book Review by:
William Schaeffer
copyright(c)2015

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I remember my friend Mark Stevens (RIP) would get very passionate in college and grad school when anyone would say, "The Earth revolves around the Sun."

And he would say, "But it doesn't. The Sun revolves around the Earth, also. It is just your frame of reference."

And then he would get very heated about this idea even with total strangers, who reacted like, "Ok-... Whatever? Guess I don't want to think about it that much."

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p. 7

"The picture of Galileo's personality presented year by year in his correspondence and publications is that of a prudent man, not given to forming conclusions without having weighed the evidence, well aware of social customs, and disinclined to quarrel with highly placed persons in church or state."

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p. 64

"What first struck Galileo about a pendulum was not just that it swung back and forth in equal times, but that the time of the swing remained the same whether the arc through which it swung was large or small."

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