Toni Howard
Mrs. Arnold
Revolutions
December 20, 2014
Galileo Galilei’s Legacy Today
Galileo Galilei, a man ahead of his time, began the scientific revolution. He challenged accepted theories of his day causing conflict among multiple religious leaders, making Galileo a powerful figure in all of science. Most commonly known for his astronomical observations, he also made significant contributions in the areas of physics, philosophy, and mathematics. He destroyed Aristotle’s geocentric idea that the earth was the center of the universe, and he proved with a collection of evidence that his heliocentric idea was right about the sun being the center of the solar system. Although this breakthrough triggered problems for himself, including house arrest until he died, he was seen as a fearless man not scared to show off what he believed in. Looking at Galileo Galilei’s early life as a scholar, researcher, and inventor, we are able to see the contributions he made to multiple sciences and how his legacy still is continuing today.
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564. He was the first child of 7 from his father Vincenzio Galilei and his wife Giulia. Vincenzio wanted the best for Galileo so he began his education with a private tutor until the family moved to Florence in 1574. Galileo then attended the monastery of Santa Maria Vallombrosa, where he spent his time learning alongside Camaldolese monks. By the age of 17, his father suggested that he would further his education and go into medical school at the University of Pisa. Spending only a short amount of time at the university, he began to strongly dislike the medical field. He disliked that he had to memorize ancient texts rather develop new ideas for the field of medicine. The young Galileo is even described as an “impassioned speaker who often attempted to shock people into questioning the theories which they accepted simply because others accepted them” (Hitzeroth and Heerboth 7). He started to have a stronger passion for a more physical science such as mathematics, physics, and philosophy. Soon later he began to study Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, who was considered the master of all questions concerning the universe. It was stated that Galileo “believed that the inner workings of the universe could be revealed through patient study and painstaking research” (Hitzeroth and Heerboth 7). This leads to Galileo leaving all of his medical studies behind and with his father’s disapproval, he dropped out of the University of Pisa without a degree. Over time, however, Galileo is fortunate enough to land a teaching position at the University of Padua in 1592. Here he is able to have the freedom he wants and have the ability to explore his own ideas. He ends up doing most of his life work at the university and it is even said that the 18 years he spent at Padua, were the happiest of his life (Karwatka 1). Now having the ability to study and work on whatever he pleased, he made significant contributions in the areas of physics, philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. He published numerous papers and treatises at Padua which began letting the world know how brilliant he truly was. These papers of his were sent out to other universities all over Europe and influenced people starting the scientific revolution. As Galileo continually studied Aristotle, he found himself not agreeing with his theory of how the earth is the center of the universe. Galileo personally then writes a book called On Motion that never gets published, but, he states in the book about Aristotle “In practically everything he wrote about local motion, he wrote the opposite of truth” (Hitzeroth and Heerboth 18). He contradicts what Aristotle says and tries to give details about his heliocentric theory, where the sun is the center of the solar system, not the earth. This causes immense problems and uproars, especially with the Roman Catholic Church. Galileo then takes a break from this idea to avoid punishment, but he is still convinced that Aristotle is wrong. He then hears in 1608 about Hans Lippershey, who invented the telescope. Being the first to realize that the telescope could have more potential, Galileo took the original and increased the magnification significantly to use it to look up at the night time sky. It is described that he saw “ragged mountains on the moon, spots o the sun, stars too faint to see with the unaided eye, and the four moons of Jupiter” (Karwatka 2). After such ground-breaking discoveries, this gave Galileo the astronomical evidence he needed to prove that the sun was at the center of the solar system because research declares “Galileo reasoned that if Jupiter’s four moons could stay in orbit around Jupiter while the planet moved through space, then earth’s single moon could orbit it while the earth moved in orbit around the sun” (Hitzeroth and Heerboth 29). He recorded every single piece of research and data and placed it into his book called Sidereus nunius that got published in 1610. The Roman Catholic Church put Galileo on trial in 1616. They told him not to hold, teach, or defend his theories in any manner whatsoever. In his last attempt to get word out about his heliocentric theory, he asked and received permission from Pope Urban VIII to write a book that was going to be about comparing both the geocentric and the heliocentric models of the solar system. However, the piece of writing clearly favored his system better and he was sent back to Rome for another trial yet again. Here he was charged with heresy. Galileo was imprisoned and then moved to house arrest for the rest of his life. As an inventor, scholar, and researcher, Galileo carved out new scientific methods, which is why he is considered fundamental to modern science. He is given credit for one of the most essential things in any science class; the scientific method. Though nobody knows who came up with this system of steps, Galileo began using it in a particular way that modern scientists still use today. As a brilliant professor too, he inspired students of his own to go out and make their own breakthroughs. Isaac Newton was even inspired to answer Galileo’s remaining unanswered motion questions, such as velocity, acceleration, force, and gravity. Karwatka states that Galileo’s “greatest contribution was his use of experimentation to prove or disprove scientific theories” (2). This is very true when you look back on his overall life and see all the struggles he had to face, just to say something he believes in. Galileo was “a challenger of accepted notions of his day, and a critic of the most powerful people in academia and the Roman Catholic church” (Hitzeroth and Heerboth 7). The Catholic Church however has called for the formal exoneration of Galileo in 1982 by Pope John Paul II (Hitzeroth and Heerboth 83). So Galileo had won his argument with the church after all. On October 18, 1989, NASA launched the Galileo probe. It was the first spacecraft designed to explore Jupiter and study the planet’s moons. Galileo is remembered for his amazing ability to go against authority and seek out his own answers. He contributed by the use of experimentation to prove or disprove scientific theories of his day. During his life as a scholar, researcher, and inventor, we can see how he still lives on through science. The world today uses his contributions to all of science to help us understand everything we know. Whether people today are trying to find the cure to cancer, how to stop global warming, and even what the universe is made out of, they will use Galileo’s scientific method and will follow the same path of the scientist from Italy who proved the earth was a planet spinning in space.

Works Cited

Heerboth, Sharon, and Deborah Hitzeroth. The Importance Of Galileo Galilei. San Diego:
Lucent Books, 1992. Print.
Karwatka, Dennis. “Galileo Galilei And How He Started The Scientific Revolution.” Web. 7
Nov. 2014.
Ryan, James. “Galileo Galilei.” Great Neck Publishing. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.