Two worshipful illusions about Galileo:

1. aclaimed as discoverer of "the law of falling bodies", apparently first discovered by 13th century Thomas Bradwardine and "The Merton Scholars" (described at this Website);
2. portrayed as repressed for defending the Keplerian "geocentrism", whereas the greatest charge against Galileo was that he was a "Pythagorean" for believing (against Platonism) that arithmetic could explain motion as in "the law of falling bodies".

   On the other hand, Galileo has been neglected or ignored for a momentous contribution to many sciences.

   In 1632, Galileo (1564-1642) published Two New Sciences.

   One "science" was that of kinematics, the STUDY OF MATTER IN MOTION WITHOUT REFERENCE TO FORCES, in particular, THE LAW OF FALLING BODIES (which was actually discovered in the 1240's by "The Merton Scholars" of Oxford University).

   The other "science" attempts to explain how "things grow". Galileo noted that WEIGHT depends upon VOLUME -- which is LENGTH CUBED, while STRENGTH depends on CROSS-SECTION OF MUSCLE, which is LENGTH SQUARED. Thus, if LENGTH DOUBLES, WEIGHTS INCREASES EIGHT-FOLD, WHILE STRENGTH ONLY INCREASES FOUR-FOLD. It's another matter of diminishing returns".