Augmented by Galileo's handwritten additions in his own copy of the first edition, this classic in the history of science is reprinted unabridged from the first completely new translation in three centuries. The translation conveys in modern English the fiery spirit of the original DIALOGUE. Primarily the book is astronomical and philosophical in content, being concerned with the arguments for and against the motion of the earth. Galileo's discoveries and researches in astronomy--the phases of Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, and the motion of sunspots--share the main scenes with his cogent and derisive attacks upon Aristotle and his followers. The discussion of the Second Day contains many of Galileo's fundamental contributions to physics--inertia, the laws of falling bodies, centrifugal force, and the pendulum--as well as important historical steps in mathematics toward analytic geometry and calculus. Galileo's explanations, written in the infancy of modern science, can hardly fail to be understood today by both layman and scientist. Einstein's foreward relates Galileo's work to that of his predecessors and to our own scientific age. Supplemental notes, making the work as nearly self-contained as possible, are supplied in a revised appendix by Stillman Drake. - from Amzon