Galileo and the Magic Numbers

Rating:
Summary: Pythagorean Magic! Yea!
Review: I, for one, thought that this book was an awesome literary accomplishment, and for a historical biography, it was very interesting. What fascinated me the most about Galileo was his excitement for learning new things. As a boy his father, Vincezio Galilei, often told Galileo to think for himself. He told him that even if a person says something popular, it may not always be accurate. Even a person such as Aristotle could be corrected. Although this is true and is the basis of Galileo's life, the title of the book is referring to the Pythagorean Theorem. This was the very first thing taught to Galileo on his first day in a private noble school. What happens is the teacher calls Galileo to sit on the floor with him. He then takes out a multitude of pebbles from his pocket. He lays three pebbles on the floor in the shape of a triangle. He then points out that it is an isosceles triangle, because all of the sides are congruent. It fascinates young Galileo even more to learn that when more pebbles are placed at the base of the triangle, something happens. He sees a pattern happening with the sum of two sides. They seemed to be equal with the hypotenuse of the triangle. This, he learned, is what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem, or as his teacher called it, the Pythagorean Number Magic. It is most popular throughout the book, because it is the first thing that starts the most famous Philosopher in the world, Galileo Galilei, wanting to learn.