Galileo Galilei was a great Italian scientist, mathematician and astronomer. He was born in 1564 in Pisa and was sent to school at the Monastery of Vallombrosa, near Florence. He had many gifts and became a good musician as well as an amateur painter. It was only later that he became interested in Science and Mathematics.

It was from the top of the Pisa Tower that Galileo determined the velocity of falling objects: all objects fall at the same speed, whatever their mass. Previously people had thought that heavy objects fell to Earth more quickly than light ones.

From People Magazine