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Astronomical Images : Determining vertical height of a body placed on top of another entity of unknown height

Galileo Galilei

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This excerpt comes from Galileo's treatise <i>On the Operations of the Geometric and Military Compass</i>, his first publication printed in 1606. The text was an instrument manual intended as an advertisement for a special type of compass that Galileo manufactured and for which he offered lessons in Padua. In this passage, Galileo explains how to use the compass to determine the unknown height of a tower placed on top of a tall mountain. Such problems and their solutions were common in practical mathematical teaching in the early modern period.</p>

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