Scientific Revolution

Primary Content Source: Prentice Hall World HistoryImages as cited.

GEOCENTRIC THEORY: Until the 1500s many people believed the EARTH was at the center of the universe (solar system too, since solar system is in the universe)

-Started in Greece by ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy-Church taught the same

theory (God made Earth, so…)-In the 1500’s and 1600’s, discoveries were made that made people start changing their minds. Or at least start asking questions.

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HELIOCENTRIC THEORY: Proposed in 1543 by Copernicus, a Polish astronomer.

-Said SUN was at center of the universe. -Written in his book, Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.-Said several planets (including Earth) orbited the sun.

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Most experts rejected this radical theory.

-In Europe at the time, all scientific knowledge and many religious teachings were based on the arguments developed by classical thinkers. -If Ptolemy’s reasoning about the planets was wrong, then the whole system of human knowledge might be called into question.

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SUPPORT FOR COPERNICUS-In the late 1500s a Danish astronomer named TYCHO BRAHE backed Copernicus’ argument.-He observed the position of planets for years, carefully noting the position of heavenly bodies-His assistant carried on his work after Brahe died

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After Brahe’s death, his assistant, the brilliant German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler, used Brahe’s data to calculate the orbits of the planets revolving around the sun. -His calculations supported Copernicus’s heliocentric view.

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NEW IDEASKepler’s ideas were different in another way, however.

-Taught that orbits weren’t perfect circles around the sun,but oval-shaped.

Copernicus and Ptolemy believed in orbits shaped like circles.

Kepler: ELLIPTICAL (oval) orbits

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Scientists built on the foundations of Copernicus and Kepler.

-In Italy, Galileo Galilei assembled an astronomical telescope.

-Galileo had observed the four moons of Jupiter moving slowly around that planet.

-Like Copernicus he realized that the Earth moved around the sun.

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UNDER ATTACK: Other scholars attacked Galileo because his observations contradicted ancient views about the world. -The Church condemned him because his ideas challenged the Christian teaching that the heavens were fixed, unmoving, and perfect.

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ON TRIAL: In 1633 Galileo was brought before the Inquisition. -INQUISITION: A court established by the Roman Catholic Church in the thirteenth century to try cases of heresy and other offenses against the church.-Threatened with death unless he took back his theory and said that Earth was at center of the universe.-Took it back, but reluctantly

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Despite the opposition of religious authorities, by the early 1600s a new approach to science had emerged. Unlike most earlier approaches, it did not rely on authorities like Aristotle or Ptolemy or

even the Bible. It depended instead upon observation and experimentation.

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The new approach to science required scientists to collect and accurately measure

data. To explain the data, scientists used reasoning to propose a logical hypothesis, or

possible explanation. They then tested the hypothesis with further observation or

experimentation.

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Complex mathematical calculations were used to convert the observations and experiments

into scientific laws. After reaching a conclusion, scientists repeated their work at

least once, and usually many times, to confirm their findings. This step-by-step process of discovery became known as the scientific

method.

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The new scientific method was really a revolution in thought.

-Two giants of this revolution were the Englishman Francis Bacon and the Frenchman Rene Descartes. Each

devoted himself to the problem of knowledge.

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SIMILARITIES:-Both Bacon and Descartes rejected Aristotle’s

assumptions and Church teachings about “science.”-Instead, looked for truth and believed it could only be

found through investigation.

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Bacon and Descartes differed in their

methods.Bacon stressed

experimentation and observation. He wanted

science to make life better for people by leading to

practical technologies.

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Descartes emphasized human reasoning as the best road to understanding. In his Discourse on Method, he explains

how he decided to discard all traditional authorities and search for provable knowledge.

“I think, therefore I am.”

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ISAAC NEWTON-By age 24, came up with a brilliant theory to explain how

planets circled the sun-Saw an apple fall from a tree, wondered if force that made apple fall to Earth was same that controlled the movement

of the planets

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In the next 20 years, Newton perfected his theory. Using mathematics, he showed that a single force keeps

the planets in their orbits around the sun.

He called this force gravity.

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In 1687, Newton published Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

-Book explains the law of gravity and other workings of the universe.

- Nature, argued Newton, follows uniform laws.- All motion in the universe can be measured and described

mathematically.

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To many, Newton’s work seemed to link physics and astronomy, to bind the new

science as gravity itself held the universe together. An English poet caught the spirit of

what would later be called the Newtonian revolution:

“Nature and Nature’s Laws lay hid in night,God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.”

- Alexander Pope, Epitaphs

For over 200 years, Newton’s laws held fast. In the early 1900s, startling new theories of the universe called some of Newton’s ideas into question. Yet Newton’s laws of motion and mechanics continue to have many practical

uses. Newton helped develop an important new branch of mathematics – calculus.

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Chemistry slowly freed itself from the magical notions of medieval alchemists, who had

believed it was possible to transform ordinary metals into gold.

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In the 1600s, Robert Boyle distinguished between individual elements and chemical compounds. He also explained the effect of temperature and pressure on gases. Boyle’s

work opened the way to modern chemical analysis of the composition of matter.

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During the Renaissance, artists and physicians made new efforts to

study the human body. In 1543, Andreas Vesalius

published On the Structure of the Human Body, the first accurate

and detailed study of

human anatomy.

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A French physician, Ambrose Pare, developed a new and more effective ointment for

preventing infection. He also developed a

technique for closing wounds with stitches.

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In the early 1600s, William Harvey, an English scholar, described the circulation of the blood

for the first time. He showed how the heart serves as a pump to force blood through veins

and arteries.

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Later in the century, the Dutch inventor Anthony van Leeuwenhoek perfected the

microscope and became the first human to see cells and microorganisms. These pioneering

scientists opened the way for further advances.

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Thinkers like Bacon, Descartes, and Newton applied the scientific method to the pursuit of knowledge. Their work encouraged others to

search for scientific laws governing the universe. Such ideas opened the way to the

Enlightenment of the 1700s.

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