If you could written a letter to Galileo regarding De Magnete?

Question

If you could discuss William Gilbert's findings in his book De Magnete with Galileo, what would you highlight?

Answer 1

Galileo, of course, was one of the early proponents of heliocentrism - the idea that the Sun, not the Earth, was the center of our system.

As such, I think he would have been particularly intrerested in Gilbert's experiment with perfectly spherical magnets. Gilbert found that such magnets in the presence of Earth's magnetic field began to spin at a rate of once per 24 hours. This led Gilbert to suggest that the Earth itself is probably doing the same and causing the motion in the small magnets.

Which is a good first step for heliocentrism. If know the Earth is rotating and not still as it might seem, it is not too far a step to then suggest that the apparent motion of the sun is not as it seems either. Galileo tried to prove some of this same stuff with tides, without terrific result (and we know his tidal theories were completely wrong today).

There is reason to believe that Galileo was already familiar with Gilbert's work, so there probably wouldn't really be much need for ME to point out anything about it to him. Hope that helps!