The Scientific Revolution

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The Scientific Revolution
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Truth?

• In the Middle Ages, scholars decided truth based
  on the Bible or from Greek or Roman texts.

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• In the Renaissance, people questioned how the
  universe worked.
• This caused the Scientific Revolution.

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1. Nicolaus Copernicus

• 1500s
• Polish
• Astronomy
• Heliocentric theory the earth and planets
  revolve around the sun!

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• Until this time, scholars believed in the
  geocentric theory, that everything in the
  universe revolved around the earth.

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• Copernicus theory still didnt explain why the
  planets orbited the way they did.
• Fearing ridicule or persecution, Copernicus did
  not publish his findings until 1543, the year he
  died.

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2. Johannes Kepler

• Late 1500s
• German
• Math and astronomy
• Calculated the orbits of the planets (elliptical)

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3. Galileo Galilei

• 1609-1642
• Italian
• Scientist astronomer
• Invented the telescope

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• In Italy, Galileo confirmed Copernicus
  heliocentric theory through the use of his
  telescope.

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• The Catholic Church warned Galileo, but in 1632
  he published a heliocentric book!

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• The pope called Galileo to Rome to stand trial.

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• Under the threat of torture and excommunication,
  Galileo knelt before the cardinals and read a
  confession that the heliocentric theory was
  false.

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• Galileo was never again a free man, living under
  house arrest and dying in 1642 in Florence.
• His books and ideas still spread throughout
  Europe.

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4. Isaac Newton

• 1687- published book
• English
• Physicist
• Developed the law of gravity laws of motion

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• What does an apple have to do with gravity?
  Ac-cording to George Stukeley, Newtons
  biographer and friend, Newton was sitting in the
  shade of an apple tree when an apple fell nearby.
  Newton began to wonder why apples always fall to
  the ground. Why dont they fall sideways or up?
  Newton reasoned that the earth must have a power
  that draws objects to it. That was the beginning
  of the law of gravity.

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• Newton established the law of universal
  gravitation.
• According to this law, every object in the
  universe attracts every other object.
• In 1687, Newton wrote Mathematical Principles of
  Natural Philosophy, full of his ideas.

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5. Robert Boyle

• 1600s
• English
• Chemist
• Distinguished elements and compounds

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• Although Boyle's chief scientific interest was
  chemistry, he developed a brilliant series of
  experiments in which he used an air pump to
  create a vacuum. He also developed what later
  became known as "Boyle's law" that the volume of
  a gas varies inversely with pressure.

• Boyle defined the term element in 1661 as " . . .
  certain primitive and simple, or perfectly
  unmingled bodies which not being made of any
  other bodies, or of one another, are the
  ingredients of which all those called perfectly
  mixt bodies are immediately compounded, and into
  which they are ultimately resolved."

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7. Andreas Vesalius

• 1500s
• Italian
• Physician
• He accurately detailed the human body

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8. William Harvey

• 1600s
• English
• Biologist
• Developed theory of blood circulation (the heart
  pumps blood through the body)

This illustration depicts one of William Harvey's
experiments in his On the Circulation of the
Blood (1628). Venal valves had already been
discovered, but here Harvey shows that venal
blood flows only toward the heart. He ligatured
an arm to make obvious the veins and their
valves, then pressed blood away from the heart
and showed that the vein would remain empty
because blocked by the valve.
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9. Francis Bacon

• 1600s
• French
• Scientist
• Developed the Scientific Method

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Not that bacon!

• An English writer, Francis Bacon believed that
  by better understanding the world, scientists
  would improve peoples lives.
• He urged scientists to experiment by observing
  the world and drawing conclusions.

This Bacon!
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10. Rene Descartes

• 1600s
• French
• Scientist
• Supported idea that human reason should be used
  to find truth

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• A French researcher, Rene Descartes relied on
  mathematics and logic.
• He believed that everything should be doubted
  until proved by reason.

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I think therefore I am. Rene Descartes