说起伽利略大家都不陌生从小到大的课本上都会提到这位科学家巨人和他发明的望远镜，同时他也是近代实验科学的奠基者，真正的科学实践巨人。同时大家日常生活中的温度计也是他发明的;他既是物理学家、天文学家、哲学家又是发明家被誉为“近代科学之父”。
他是为维护真理而进行不屈不挠的科学战士。恩格斯称他是“不管有何障碍，都能不顾一切而打破旧说，创立新说的巨人之一”。1564年2月25日生于比萨，历史上他首先提出并证明了同物质同形状的两个质量不同的物体下降速度一样快，他反对教会的陈规旧俗，由此，，并被终身监禁。他以系统的实验和观察推翻了亚里士多德诸多观点。因此，他被称为“近代科学之父”“现代观测天文学之父” 、“现代物理学之父”、“科学之父” 及“现代科学之父”。他的工作，为牛顿的理论体系的建立奠定了基础。
Galileo was named after an ancestor, Galileo Bonaiuti, a physician, university teacher and politician who lived in Florence from 1370 to 1450; at that time in the late 14th century, the family's surname shifted from Bonaiuti (or Buonaiuti) to Galilei. Galileo Bonaiuti was buried in the same church, the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, where about 200 years later his more famous descendant Galileo Galilei was buried too. When Galileo Galilei was 8, his family moved to Florence, but he was left with Jacopo Borghini for two years.He then was educated in the Camaldolese Monastery at Vallombrosa, 35 km southeast of Florence.
Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy, the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei, a famous lutenist, composer, and music theorist; and Giulia Ammannati. Galileo became an accomplished lutenist himself and would have learned early from his father a healthy scepticism for established authority,the value of well-measured or quantified experimentation, an appreciation for a periodic or musical measure of time or rhythm, as well as the illuminative progeny to expect from a marriage of mathematics and experiment.
Three of Galileo's five siblings survived infancy, and the youngest Michelangelo also became a noted lutenist and composer, although he contributed to financial burdens during Galileo's young adulthood. Michelangelo was incapable of contributing his fair share for their father's promised dowries to their brothers-in-law, who would later attempt to seek legal remedies for payments due. Michelangelo would also occasionally have to borrow funds from Galileo for support of his musical endeavours and excursions. These financial burdens may have contributed to Galileo's early fire to develop inventions that would bring him additional income.