Dr. Brian Keating

They would use tubes and whatnot. But Galileo looked at the moon. And the hypothesis was everything in the universe is orbiting around the Earth. The Earth is the most perfect place in the universe because God puts the things that are most important close to him in the center of the universe. God is the center of the universe. The Catholic Church held this. And everything will go around the Earth.

And in fact, I'm not going to challenge you because I think you'll defeat me in this. But in your audience, there are probably very many educated, I call them .edu people. There's many, many educated people. I find that even with my brilliant students at UCSD, They can't prove that the Earth is not the center of the solar system.

And in fact, I'm not going to challenge you because I think you'll defeat me in this. But in your audience, there are probably very many educated, I call them .edu people. There's many, many educated people. I find that even with my brilliant students at UCSD, They can't prove that the Earth is not the center of the solar system.

And in fact, I'm not going to challenge you because I think you'll defeat me in this. But in your audience, there are probably very many educated, I call them .edu people. There's many, many educated people. I find that even with my brilliant students at UCSD, They can't prove that the Earth is not the center of the solar system.

In other words, I'll say on my astronomy 101 quiz, I'll say prove that the Earth is not the center of the solar system, which was the whole universe back then, right? And I would say it's about 75%, 80% will not get it right. In fact, I can say to most people, proof the Earth is not flat. I claim the Earth is flat. Prove me wrong. Most people can't prove it.

In other words, I'll say on my astronomy 101 quiz, I'll say prove that the Earth is not the center of the solar system, which was the whole universe back then, right? And I would say it's about 75%, 80% will not get it right. In fact, I can say to most people, proof the Earth is not flat. I claim the Earth is flat. Prove me wrong. Most people can't prove it.

In other words, I'll say on my astronomy 101 quiz, I'll say prove that the Earth is not the center of the solar system, which was the whole universe back then, right? And I would say it's about 75%, 80% will not get it right. In fact, I can say to most people, proof the Earth is not flat. I claim the Earth is flat. Prove me wrong. Most people can't prove it.

They don't know how the proof is constructed. I don't expect them to go and replicate what Aristarchus did 2,000 years ago. But this is knowledge we've had for, as I said, 2,000 years. The knowledge that the Earth goes around the sun and not the other way around is only about 400 years old. But I would say 99%—I know for a fact— I went to Italy actually 10 years ago.

They don't know how the proof is constructed. I don't expect them to go and replicate what Aristarchus did 2,000 years ago. But this is knowledge we've had for, as I said, 2,000 years. The knowledge that the Earth goes around the sun and not the other way around is only about 400 years old. But I would say 99%—I know for a fact— I went to Italy actually 10 years ago.

They don't know how the proof is constructed. I don't expect them to go and replicate what Aristarchus did 2,000 years ago. But this is knowledge we've had for, as I said, 2,000 years. The knowledge that the Earth goes around the sun and not the other way around is only about 400 years old. But I would say 99%—I know for a fact— I went to Italy actually 10 years ago.

It was the 100th anniversary of Einstein's theory of general relativity. And we had a ceremony to honor the first person who ever came up with a theory of relativity, which is also Galileo. Galileo had the first notion that relative motion is indistinguishable. That if you and I are on a bike and I'm stationary, you can't tell if you're moving. I can't tell if I'm stationary.

It was the 100th anniversary of Einstein's theory of general relativity. And we had a ceremony to honor the first person who ever came up with a theory of relativity, which is also Galileo. Galileo had the first notion that relative motion is indistinguishable. That if you and I are on a bike and I'm stationary, you can't tell if you're moving. I can't tell if I'm stationary.

It was the 100th anniversary of Einstein's theory of general relativity. And we had a ceremony to honor the first person who ever came up with a theory of relativity, which is also Galileo. Galileo had the first notion that relative motion is indistinguishable. That if you and I are on a bike and I'm stationary, you can't tell if you're moving. I can't tell if I'm stationary.

That's called relativity of motion. Motion is not absolute. Einstein would later enhance that, put on steroids, and then come up with all sorts of cool stuff that we can get into.

That's called relativity of motion. Motion is not absolute. Einstein would later enhance that, put on steroids, and then come up with all sorts of cool stuff that we can get into.

That's called relativity of motion. Motion is not absolute. Einstein would later enhance that, put on steroids, and then come up with all sorts of cool stuff that we can get into.

But this notion that you could do observations, that you could use a scientific tool coupled with a hypothesis and then iterate on those hypotheses to make both the instrument better and your hypothesis better and then expose that to scientific peer review, which was not what we have today. That was done by Galileo. He was the first person to use the scientific method. What did he use it with?

But this notion that you could do observations, that you could use a scientific tool coupled with a hypothesis and then iterate on those hypotheses to make both the instrument better and your hypothesis better and then expose that to scientific peer review, which was not what we have today. That was done by Galileo. He was the first person to use the scientific method. What did he use it with?

But this notion that you could do observations, that you could use a scientific tool coupled with a hypothesis and then iterate on those hypotheses to make both the instrument better and your hypothesis better and then expose that to scientific peer review, which was not what we have today. That was done by Galileo. He was the first person to use the scientific method. What did he use it with?

A telescope. So a telescope that he used was a refracting telescope. Lenses like eyeglasses, two of them, one put at the far end called the objective. It's closer to the object. The other one, the eyepiece, close to your eye. And he was able to magnify things about three to 10 times pretty easily.