In 1610, Galileo made the first telescopic survey of the Milky Way and discovered that it is composed of a multitude of individual stars. Today, we know that the Milky Way comprises our view inward of the huge cosmic pinwheel that we call the Milky Way Galaxy and that is our home. Moreover, our Galaxy is now recognized as just one galaxy among many billions of other galaxies in the cosmos.---------------------------------------Distant Nature: Astronomy Exercises 2016 by Stephen Tuttle under license "Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike".

This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how Galileo, using his newly developed refracting telescope, observed four of Jupiter's moons, the first astronomical bodies to be discovered since ancient times.

Einstein called Galileo the "father of modern physics." This media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site looks at Galileo's quest to understand the mathematics of motion.

In the early 1600s, most people believed that the Sun revolved around a stationary Earth. This video segment adapted from NOVA tells how Galileo proved that the Sun, not Earth, is at the center of our universe.

This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how Galileo used his telescope to carefully observe and study sunspots.

Scientists don't always get it right. This video segment adapted from NOVA looks at Galileo's failed theory for the motion of the tides.

A series of lectures delivered by Peter Millican to first-year philosophy students at the University of Oxford. The lectures comprise of the 8-week General Philosophy course, delivered to first year undergraduates. These lectures aim to provide a thorough introduction to many philosophical topics and to get students and others interested in thinking about key areas of philosophy. Taking a chronological view of the history of philosophy, each lecture is split into 3 or 4 sections which outline a particular philosophical problem and how different philosophers have attempted to resolve the issue. Individuals interested in the 'big' questions about life such as how we perceive the world, who we are in the world and whether we are free to act will find this series informative, comprehensive and accessible.

This course offers an introduction to the history and historiography of science from ancient Greece to the present. It is designed to serve as an introduction for those who have no prior background in the field and to deepen the knowledge of those who already do. We will consider how the history of science has responded to its encounters with philosophy, sociology, economics, and anthropology. Our readings and discussions will focus on determining what makes particular works effective, understanding major contemporary trends and debates in the history of science, and establishing resources for further research.

Students learn more about forces by examining the force of gravitational attraction. They observe how objects fall and measure the force of gravitational attraction upon objects.

A team of middle school teachers developed an integrated unit spanning math, social studies and ELA, and focused the unit centering on the life of Galileo, including some of his investigations, his beliefs based on evidence, and his conflicts with the Catholic church.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they are introduced to Einstein's life and work with four engaging and kid-friendly areas. Equation Invasion, a look at the world's most famous equation about the relationship between energy and mass. Web Master, the scientists whose ideas and discoveries shaped Einstein's career. Light the Way, an introduction to "the fastest thing in the universe" and the waves it travels in. Everyday Einstein: LASERS, a comic strip that illustrates how Einstein's work led to the development of lasers.

This course explores the impact of new technology on the recording and distribution of words and images at three different times: The invention of the printing press ca. 1450; the adaptation of electricity to communication technology in the 19th century (telegraph, telephone, phonograph); and the emergence of digital media today. Assignments include essays and online projects. Students also participate in the design and construction of a hand-set printing press.
This course is also part of the Concourse program at MIT.

2010 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s astonishing sightings of features on the moon, stars, and moons around Jupiter that no one had seen before. Recreate these new ways of seeing and exploring from the materials and techniques Galileo had on hand, while you reflect on the times and works of Galileo. What was it like to improvise new ways of seeing and exploring from the materials and techniques on hand? What do we notice? What surprises us? How can we relate to past experience and ideas? What are we curious to research? How does our experimenting grow into our learning? Let your own curiosity drive your explorations.

Global Satellite Navigation Systems (GNSS), such as GPS, have revolutionized positioning and navigation. Currently, four such systems are operational or under development. They are the American GPS, the Russian Glonass, the European Galileo, and the Chinese Beidou-Compass. This course will address: (1) the technical principles of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), (2) the methods to improve the accuracy of standard positioning services down to the millimeter accuracy level and the integrity of the systems, and (3) the various applications for positioning, navigation, geomatics, earth sciences, atmospheric research and space missions. The course will first address the space segment, user and control segment, signal structure, satellite and receiver clocks, timing, computation of satellite positions, broadcast and precise ephemeris. It will also cover propagation error sources such as atmospheric effects and multipath. The second part of the course covers autonomous positioning for car navigation, aviation, and location based services (LBS). This part includes the integrity of GNSS systems provided for instance by Space Based Augmentation Systems (e.g. WAAS, EGNOS) and Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM). It will also cover parameter estimation in dynamic systems: recursive least-squares estimation, Kalman filter (time update, measurement update), innovation, linearization and Extended Kalman filter. The third part of the course covers precise relative GPS positioning with two or more receivers, static and kinematic, for high-precision applications. Permanent GPS networks and the International GNSS Service (IGS) will be discussed as well. In the last part of the course there will be two tracks (students only need to do one): (1) geomatics track: RTK services, LBS, surveying and mapping, civil engineering applications (2) space track: space based GNSS for navigation, control and guidance of space missions, formation flying, attitude determination The final lecture will be on (scientific) applications of GNSS.

Sidereus Nuncius (usually Sidereal Messenger, also Starry Messenger or Sidereal Message) is a short astronomical treatise (or pamphlet) published in New Latin by Galileo Galilei in March 1610. It was the first published scientific work based on observations made through a telescope, and it contains the results of Galileo's early observations of the imperfect and mountainous Moon, the hundreds of stars that were unable to be seen in either the Milky Way or certain constellations with the naked eye, and the Medicean Stars that appeared to be circling Jupiter.[1]

The Latin word nuncius was typically used during this time period to denote messenger; however, it was also (though less frequently) rendered as message. Though the title Sidereus Nuncius is usually translated into English as Sidereal Messenger, many of Galileo's early drafts of the book and later related writings indicate that the intended purpose of the book was "simply to report the news about recent developments in astronomy, not to pass himself off solemnly as an ambassador from heaven."[2] Therefore, the correct English translation of the title is Sidereal Message (or often, Starry Message).

Students examine the motion of pendulums and come to understand that the longer the string of the pendulum, the fewer the number of swings in a given time interval. They see that changing the weight on the pendulum does not have an effect on the period. They also observe that changing the angle of release of the pendulum has negligible effect upon the period.

Students explore how pendulums work and why they are useful in everyday applications. In a hands-on activity, they experiment with string length, pendulum weight and angle of release. In an associated literacy activity, students explore the mechanical concept of rhythm, based on the principle of oscillation, in a broader biological and cultural context in dance and sports, poetry and other literary forms, and communication in general.

This subject traces the evolution of ideas about nature, and how best to study and explain natural phenomena, beginning in ancient times and continuing through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A central theme of the subject is the intertwining of conceptual and institutional relations within diverse areas of inquiry: cosmology, natural history, physics, mathematics, and medicine.

This seminar examines a number of famous trials in European and American history. It considers the salient issues (political, social, cultural) of several trials, the ways in which each trial was constructed and covered in public discussions at the time, the ways in which legal reasoning and storytelling interacted in each trial and in the later retellings of the trial, and the ways in which trials serve as both spectacle and a forum for moral and political reasoning. Students have an opportunity to study one trial in depth and present their findings to the class.