Scientific Revolution

Galileo before the court

What is the scientific Revolution? Before 1500 scholars referred only to ancient Greek and Roman scholars or the Bible During the Renaissance and Reformation scholars began questioning those ideas Scholars create new ideas and discover new things based on observation and logic  

Questioning Old Ideas The Renaissance makes people curious about the world Renaissance scholars find out that ancient manuscripts didn’t always agree with each other The Renaissance and Reformation make people question the church and ideas that had been accepted for hundreds of years Translation of Muslim scholarship in the Middle Ages The printing press can spread ideas faster

Effects of European Exploration European explorers needed better tools, so they had to develop them using mathematics and astronomy Europeans discovered that other people in the world might know things they don’t or that there was more in the world to understand

· The Heliocentric Theory- The Sun-Centered Theory Astronomy was the first field to question accepted beliefs-  they questioned the geocentric theory The Medieval View (old view) o      Earth was an unmoving object at the center of the universe- geocentric theory that came from Aristotle and was expanded on by Ptolemy Scientists Nicolaus Copernicus-  Polish cleric and astronomer studied planetary movement for 25 years and developed the heliocentric theory.  He did not publish his theory until 1543, the last year of his life, out of fear of ridicule. Book was On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies Tycho Brahe- Danish astronomer carefully recorded the movements of planets for many years. Died 1601. Johannes Kepler-  studied Brahe’s data and concluded that mathematical laws governed planetary motion and that Copernicus was right

Galileo Galilei 1581- at age 17- discovered the law of the pendulum Built a telescope and studied the heavens in 1609 1610 published Starry Messenger, which described his observations and debunked Aristotle’s claims that the moon and stars were made of a pure and perfect substance

Conflict with the Church Catholic and Protestant leaders worried that these findings would lead people to question the Church’s authority o      1616 the Catholic Church warned Galileo not to defend Copernicus’s ideas o      1632 Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which clearly supported Copernican theory o      1633 he was called to stand trial and confessed that the ideas of Copernicus were wrong (so he wasn’t killed) o      Lived under house arrest and died in 1642

The Scientific Method Scientific Method- logical procedure for gathering and testing ideas: problem from observation- hypothesis- experiment- data analysis Francis Bacon- English politician and writer- urged scientists to observe the world and gather information about it and then draw conclusions from the data-  experimental method Rene Descartes- French mathematician- everything should be doubted until proved by reason

Newton Explains the Law of Gravity Isaac Newton- English Scientist- developed single theory of motion-  the same force ruled the motions of the planets, the pendulum, and all matter on earth and in space-  Law of Universal Gravitation 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

Scientific Instruments 1590- microscope invented by Zacharias Janssen 1670s Anton van Leeuwenhoek- observed bacteria, red blood cells 1643 Evangelista Torricelli- mercury barometer 1714 Gabriel Fahrenheit 1742 Anders Celsius

Medicine and the Human Body Middle Ages- accepted Galen’s writings on anatomy Andreas Vesalius- dissected human corpses and published his findings: On the Fabric of the Human Body (1543) William Harvey- 1628 On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals- showed how the heart pumped blood and how blood vessels worked Edward Jenner- late 1700s- vaccine to prevent smallpox (made from cowpox)

Discoveries in Chemistry Robert Boyle- pioneered the use of the scientific method in chemistry- Boyle’s Law 1661- volume, temperature, and pressure of gas affect each other Joseph Priestley- 1774- separated one pure gas from air 1779- Antoine Lavoisier- named gas oxygen