Galileo Galilei to Einstein's special theory of relativity. A biography by Galileo's pupil Vincenzo Viviani stated that Galileo had dropped balls of the same material, but different masses, from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to demonstrate that their time of descent was independent of their mass. This was contrary to what Aristotle had taught: that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones, in direct proportion to weight. While this story has been retold in popular accounts, there is no account by Galileo himself of such an experiment, and it is generally accepted by historians that it was at most a thought experiment
Italian submarine Galileo Galilei were transferred to Massawa in Eritrea where she formed 81st Squadron of VIII Submarine Group. At the time of Italy's entrance into World War II "Galileo Galilei" was stationed at the Italian base of Massawa on the Red Sea being part of the Italian Red Sea Flotilla. On June 10, 1940 the submarine under command of captain Corrado Nardi was ordered to proceed to her area of operation near Aden where she arrived on June 12. In the early morning of June 16, while submerged, she intercepted Norwegian tanker , about 12 miles south of Aden. After surfacing and ordering