Scientific Revolution

1. Scientific Revolution One person or institution can have a great influence on the course of events. When should one question authority?

2. What’s the Difference?

3. What was the Scientific Revolution? • Refers to historical changes in thought and belief in the world of science that unfolded in Europe between roughly 1550-1700 • Began with Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), who asserted a heliocentric (sun-centered) universe • Ended with Isaac Newton (1642-1727), who proposed universal laws, like gravity and a Mechanical Universe

5. Where did previous knowledge come from? • Medieval scientists, known as “natural philosophers,” did not make observations of the world and nature so much as relied on ancient authorities, especially Aristotle, for their scientific knowledge • Renaissance humanists studied the newly discovered works of ancient thinkers like Ptolemy, Archimedes, Plato.

6. Technical problems, like calculating how much weight a ship could hold (trade, especially to the New World was becoming important), spurred a movement towards observation and measurement. • New instruments like the telescope and microscope made fresh observations and discoveries possible. • Printing spread ideas more quickly than ever before.

7. Ptolemy • 90 -168 CE, was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek • Ptolemaic System: Medieval philosophers constructed a geocentric theory-Earth is at the center. • Universe was a series of concentric spheres with a motionless Earth in the middle • Insisted that the orbits were circular.

9. Nicolas Copernicus 1473-1543 • 1543-Published his famous work, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, in 1543 • Believed his heliocentric system - the Sun in the center- was more accurate than the Ptolemaic system.

10. Nicolas Copernicus • Argued that all the planets revolved around the sun, the Moon revolved around Earth, and Earth rotated on its axis. • In the Copernican system, the heavens were not spiritual but material, and God was no longer in a specific place (Heaven).

12. Tycho Brahe 1546 - 1601 • Born into nobility in Denmark • Lost nose in duel at the age of 20 so had metal prosthesis. • King Frederick II gave him an island, Hven, and built an observatory on it. • Improved methods and accuracy in observations • Observed the night sky for many years.

13. Tycho Brahe • Kept voluminous records • Provided evidence that supported Copernicus’s theory • Accurately catalogued over 1000 stars • Showed irregularities in our moon’s orbit • His data provided the basis for the work of Johannes Kepler armillary azimuthal

14. The Moose and Jepp • Brahe kept a dwarf named Jepp (whom he believed to be clairvoyant) as a court jester. Jepp sat under the table during dinner. • Brahe also kept a pet moose. His prized companion met a tragic end, falling downstairs after drinking beer at a banquet.

15. Brahe and Kepler • Brahe hired a student named Johannes Kepler to assist him • Brahe realized Kepler’s potential as an astronomer- and began to see him as a threat. • Because Brahe did not trust Kepler he was only shown part of the data. • After Brahe died Kepler used Brahe’s data as the basis for his research.

16. Johannes Kepler 1571-1630 • German mathematician- helped destroy the Ptolemaic system • Used Brahe’s data to calculate the orbits of the planets revolving around the sun. • Observations confirmed that the Sun was at the center of the universe • Tracked the elliptical not circular orbits of the planets (unlike Ptolemy who insisted the orbits were circular).

17. Galileo Galilei 1564 -1642 • Italian scientist and mathematician • Heard of a new Dutch invention-the telescope. • Galileo did not invent the telescope, but improved upon it. • He then pointed it toward the sky. • He saw mountains on the Moon and the four moons orbiting Jupiter. • Concluded the earth moves around the sun as Copernicus had said.

18. Galileo Galilei 1564 -1642 • Galileo’s observations seemed to indicate that the heavenly bodies were composed of material substance just like Earth, not pure orbs of light.

19. Galileo Galilei • Galileo’s discoveries contradicted the Catholic Church • The Church asked Galileo to abandon the Copernican-heliocentric- idea of the universe. • Galileo was accused of heresy (going against the Church) and in 1633 was tried before the Inquisition (the court of the Church). • Faced with death he recanted (took back) his beliefs but spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

20. Galileo sits before the Inquisition in Rome

21. "And yet ... it moves." • Allegedly said by Galileo after signing a recantation of the Copernican theory and accepting the church’s claim that the Earth was the center of the universe and unmoving.

22. How is truth determined? • Reason-Descartes • Observation-Bacon? • Truth is not determined at the beginning of inquiry, but at the end after a long process of investigation

23. René Descartes 1596–1650 • The father of modern rationalism (reason is the source of truth). • Proposed the need to search for provable knowledge. • 1637- Published Discourse on Method • Could be sure of only one thing–his own existence: “I think, therefore I am.” • Would accept only those things his reason said were true.

24. René Descartes I think, therefore I am! • Because I have the power to reason I exist!

25. Francis Bacon 1561-1626 • English philosopher • Developed the Scientific Method • Bacon emphasized arriving at conclusions about nature using inductive reasoning, or making generalizations from particular observations and experiments organized to test hypotheses • Hypotheses- an educated guess

26. Scientific Method

27. Medicine and Chemistry

28. Andreas Vesalius 1514-1564 • 1543-Published On the Structure of the Human Body • First accurate and detailed study human anatomy. • Autopsies!! • Reported his results from dissecting human bodies as a professor of surgery at the University of Padua, Italy.

29. William Harvey 1578 -1657 • 1628- Published On the Motion of the Heart and Blood • Described circulation of the blood for the first time • Work was based on observation and experiment • Showed that the heart was the beginning point of the blood’s circulation. • Heart serves as a pump to force blood through veins and arteries.

30. You’ve gotta have heart!

31. Anton van Leeuwenhoek 1632-1723 • Perfected the microscope • First person to see cells and microorganisms

32. Robert Boyle 1627 -1691 • Chemistry was also based on close observation and experiment • Identified basic building blocks of matter, opening the way for modern chemistry.

33. Sir Isaac Newton1643 - 1727 • Mathematics professor at Cambridge University. • Published his views in Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, also known as the Principia. • Gravity is the single force that keeps the planets in their orbit around the sun.

34. Sir Isaac Newton • Believed all motion in the universe could be measured and described mathematically. • Invented calculus.  • Newton gave the world a new picture of the universe as a huge, regulated, uniform machine. • This picture dominated the modern worldview until Einstein’s theory of relativity in the early 1900s.

35. Gravity- it keeps holding you down! • Universal law of gravitation: every object in the universe is attracted to every other object by a force called gravity. • This explained why planetary bodies did not go off in a straight line, but traveled in elliptical orbits.

36. Identify things that are related to Newton and his discoveries:

37. END

38. Summary • Scientific Revolution • According to the Ptolemaic system, the universe is a series of concentric spheres with Earth fixed at the center. • The heliocentric theory stated that the sun was the center of the universe (Copernicus). • The Church ordered Galileo to abandon the Copernican idea of the nature of the universe. • William Harvey believed that the heart was the beginning point for the circulation of blood in the body. • Isaac Newton’s universal law of gravitation showed how one law, mathematically proved, could explain all motion in the universe. • Francis Bacon, an English philosopher, developed the Scientific Method • Galileo’s observations seemed to indicate that the heavenly bodies were composed of material substance just like Earth, not pure orbs of light. • The scientific method was: a systematic procedure, based on collecting and analyzing evidence and crucial to the evolution of science.

39. With its emphasis on reasoned observation and systematic measurement, the scientific revolution changed the way people viewed the world and their place in it.

40. What were some new scientific theories and discoveries? • What were some of the effects of these new theories? • Importance of the scientific revolution • Emphasis on reason and systematic observation of nature • Formulation of the scientific method • Expansion of scientific knowledge

41. What do you think was the Catholic Church’s response to these developments of the Scientific Revolution?