You can read the lyrics here:
AstroCappella: Shoulders of Giants
I love AstroCappella (OT: Especially “High Energy Groove” and “Dance of the Planets”). “Shoulders of Giants” is not one of my favorites, though, because it teaches facts about Galileo that are already common knowledge.
What everyone knows about Galileo: He discovered the moons of Jupiter. He was put under house arrest by the Catholic Church for asserting heliocentrism. (Not so much because it contradicted the Bible, but because it contradicted Aristotle. When the Church finally got around to accepting The Philospher, his writings were elevated to the level of inerrant holy writ.)
The most important contribution of Galileo Galilei was to the scientific method itself. Albert Einstein described him as “...the father of modern physics – indeed of modern science.”
Galileo Galilei – The Father of Modern Science
It is in this way, through his empirical approach to obtaining and analyzing data, that Galileo can be seen to have pioneered the scientific method. Rather than seeking out evidence that would confirm and conform to a certain orthodoxy or ideology, Galileo aimed to arrive at whatever conclusions a careful analysis of evidence would suggest.
Here are some interactives describing Galileo’s experiments with falling objects, projectiles, inclined planes, and pendulums on NOVA’s website. This is the non-flash version.
www.pbs.org/...