1. Scientific Revolution
Astronomy captures the imagination Copernicus to Newton
Thesis: Describe the new astronomy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and analyze the ways in which it changed scientific thought and methods.

2. 16th and 17th Century Sweeping change in the view of the universe
Led to change in moral and religious matters
Change in the method of science
New knowledge and new science
New inventions
Telescope, microscope
Is this a revolution in science (Scientific revolution?)

3. Was it a Revolution?
Normal definition  rapid, collective change involving large numbers of people
It was a complex movement
Not rapid
Many ideas
Medicine, chemistry, natural history and astronomy
False starts
Involved new and old ideas and different parts of society

4. Nicolaus Copernicus
Tycho Brahe
Johannes Kepler
Galileo Galilei
Isaac Newton

5. Copernicus On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
Criticism of the Ptolemaic systems (dominant view)
Earth was the center of the universe (geocentrism)
God & Angels
Earth

6. Problems with Ptolemaic System
How do you explain “backward movement”
Two circles moving at the same time
Not orbits  predictions
How do you explain speed?
System was flawed

7. Copernicus’s Universe

8. Heliocentric Model Earth moves around the sun No new evidence
Circles were smaller (accounts for speed)
Longer rotation, bigger orbit
Earth moves (explains backward movement)
No new evidence
Used MATH
System was not accepted immediately

9. Tycho Brahe Did not agree with Copernicus’s view
Set out to scientifically prove he was wrong
Invented scientific instruments
No new theory BUT data influenced other thinkers
Assistant Kepler

10. Johannes Kepler Rigorous support of heliocentric theory
Epicycles vs. elliptical
The New Astronomy
Elliptical orbits around the sun
Did not answer
Why elliptical?
Why orbits?
Later answered by Newton

11. Galileo Galilei First to use a telescope to look at the stars
Result: Heavens were complex
Argument: what he saw supported Copernicus
Popularity for heliocentric view grew
Heavens  Mathematics
All natural philosophy  cold, rational, mathematical

12. Isaac Newton
Lingering Question: How do planets move in an orderly fashion?
Original idea: based on weight
Newton's: based on mutual attraction (gravity)
Demonstrated mathematically (no explanation why)
Observation before explanation
The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Latin: Principia Mathematica)

13. Westminster Abbey