From his earliest writings, Galileo expressed unconditional admiration for Archimedes, whose works he saw as a model of scientific rigor. Galileo systematically endeavored to apply the geometrical methods of Archimedes to questions of physics. This approach characterizes Galileo's fundamental contributions to the science of mechanics, a field in which his contributions significantly furthered the understanding of basic concepts such as momentum, specific gravity, floating, and condensation and rarefaction. Galileo also used strictly geometric principles to lay the foundations of the new science of the resistance of materials.