Imprisoned For the Truth

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Josephine Hart
6 years ago
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Imprisoned For the Truth Written by Boey Good day, my name is Galileo Galilei, and I'm not in a very good mood because I don't have much freedom. Read on and find out why.

1 Imprisoned For the Truth Written by Boey Good day, my name is Galileo Galilei, and I'm not in a very good mood because I don't have much freedom. Read on and find out why. I was born in 1564, February 15 in Pisa, Italy. My father was Vincenzo Galilei and my mother was Giulia Degli Ammammati. I was the oldest of my six siblings. Some people claimed I had seven siblings. Luckily, I was born in a kind of wealthy family. When I was ten years old, I moved to Florence to attend a monastery school. Then in 1581, I went to the University of Pisa to study medicine as my father requested, but I had no interest in medicine.

2 But I always loved math and geometry. I started to like math when I was in the cathedral of Pisa, sitting on a bench, staring at something for hours and hours. That something was a chandelier high above on the ceiling of the cathedral, it was swinging. I was amazed by how it took the same amount of time for it to swing no matter how big the swing. My amazement of math made me study mathematics in the University of Padua, in 1592, I was awarded the degree in mathematics from the University of Pisa. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and thinker and he had many "great" ideas on how the universe worked. Many people believed in him, but I started to think Aristotle's theories were wrong. For example, how heavier things fall faster than lighter things. I proved his theory wrong by dropping different sized metal balls of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. My new one was called the theory of uniform acceleration. I ended up proving a lot of Aristotle's theories wrong. Aristotle had this theory that Earth is the center of the universe and that everything orbits it. It just doesn't make sense to you right? Believe it or not, everyone thought Earth was the center of the universe.

3 To prove the last part wrong, I used the new invention, the telescope. I improved the original design and used it. I aimed it at Jupiter and- wait a second, what's that around Jupiter? Something was orbiting Jupiter. It was not orbiting Earth! Aristotle was wrong! Jupiter's moons did not orbit Earth. They orbited Jupiter. Because I found the moons, they are called the Galilean moons in my honor. One thing that hasn't been proved wrong yet is the first part of the theory where the Earth is the center of the universe. Before me, Nicholas Copernicus also believed in heliocentrism, which the Earth orbits the Sun. He influenced me to believe in the heliocentric theory. I also agreed with heliocentrism because the sunspots on the Sun seemed to move as if the Earth is orbiting the Sun. In 1611, I moved to Rome to show the Romans my telescope. I earned a positive reputation and everyone liked me and my telescope, so I decided to share my opinion about the heliocentric theory with three writings about it. That was a gigantic mistake.

4 The Aristotlelian Scholars saw my opinion as an attack to Aristotle's writings. The Aristotlelian Scholars were people who believed everything Aristotle said and would do anything to protect Aristotle's beliefs. They teamed up with the Catholic Church against me. The Catholic Church was like the government at the time, which was the Renaissance. Before the Renaissance, The Holy Roman Empire controlled our political life, and the Catholic Church controlled our religious life. When the Renaissance began, they held less and less power since the people started to have their own ideas, thoughts and, creations. Great literature, art, and discoveries were made. Both institutions don't like the Renaissance and wanted to gain back power, so they started restricting people from having their own ideas. The Catholic Church banned my writing and ordered me to not write about the heliocentric theory again, and threatened severe punishment. But I disobeyed them due to my stubbornness to prove Aristotle wrong. I wrote the book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems--Ptolemaic and Copernican. The Church was really bothered by that and couldn't stand it

5 anymore. That results in house arrest for the rest of my miserable last few years. Even under house arrest, I could still observe, and I published another book. A few months later, I turned completely blind and died in January 8, 1642 from an illness. My writings inspired many famous scientists and physicists like Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein to create their famous theories on motion and relativity. Also without me, you still might think the Sun is the center of the universe. My only disappointment is that the Church only forgave me in Seriously. Wow. Like 300 years after I died! Oh, well. At least people believe me now. Bibliography

Scientific Revolution

Age of Revolutions Scientific Revolution Scientific Revolution Period of time in which a new way of thinking came about. The beliefs held by many for so long were now being questioned. Use logic and reason