Transcript Scientific Revolution: 1500-1700

Scientific Revolution:
1500-1700
But was it revolutionary?
Previously,
• The Church was the ultimate
authority about how the universe
functioned
• Several things caused a change in
European thinking:
– The Crusades
– The Bubonic Plague
– The emergence of commerce
– The Reformation/printing
press/education
– The discovery of the Americas
Scientific Method
• Scientists began
to realize that their
observations did
not always mesh
with Church
doctrine
• Observation and
experimentation
• Empirical
knowledge
Renee Descartes
• “Cogito ergo sum.”
• Cannot accept anything
as true unless absolutely
able to verify validity.
• Begin with the
simpleend with
complex
• Believed science needed
to start over completely
• Need more
experimentation!
Copernicus
• Astronomer
• Studied the star movement, and realized that the
earth was not the center of the universe; the
earth did move
• Heliocentric view of the universe
Galileo
• Mathematician
• Built upon Copernicus’
discovery, and said that
the earth/planets
traveled in an elliptical
orbit, not a spherical one
• Found/wrote papers
about sun spots
• Tried before the
Inquisition and convicted
of heresy
• Forced to recant
Isaac Newton
• Principia
• Law of universal
gravitation regulates the
motions of bodies
throughout the universe
• Precise mathematical
explanations of the laws
that governed movement
on earth
• Synthesized astronomy
and mechanics
So, was it revolutionary?
• What do you think?