The square–cube law was first described by an astronomer born in what year?
Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei (] ; 15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian polymath: astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, and mathematician. He has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of science". Galileo studied speed and velocity, gravity and free fall, the principle of relativity, inertia, projectile motion and also worked in applied science and technology, describing the properties of pendulums and "hydrostatic balances", inventing the thermoscope and various military compasses, and using the telescope (a Dutch optical instrument) for scientific observations of celestial objects.
Galileo's paradox Galileo's paradox is a demonstration of one of the surprising properties of infinite sets. The ideas were not new with him, but his name has come to be associated with them. In his final scientific work, "Two New Sciences", Galileo Galilei made apparently contradictory statements about the positive integers. First, some numbers are squares, while others are not; therefore, all the numbers, including both squares and non-squares, must be more numerous than just the squares. And yet, for every square there is exactly one positive number that is its square root, and for every number there is exactly one square; hence, there cannot be more of one than of the other. This is an early use, though not the first, of the idea of one-to-one correspondence in the context of infinite sets.