Scientific Revolution

CHAPTER 16-AGE OF EXPLORATION

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION• From Magic to Science

• Natural Philosophers: religious teachings + classical thought to explain the unexplainable

• Roger Bacon: 1200s scientist & philosopher

• Favored a system of experimentation as a means of finding truth (not faith)

• Practiced alchemy – Dr. Mirabilis (wonderful teacher)

• Scientific Revolution:

• experiments & mathematics used to explain nature

• Formed basis for what we know as

science

• Answered questions in physics,

astronomy & anatomy

NEW STUDY OF NATURE• Scientists of 1500s question ancients

• Form conclusions based on their own observations

• 3 new tools to study

• Scientific instruments: barometer, microscope, telescope, air pump & thermometer

• Mathematics

• Experimentation – repeated for consistency

• Scientific Method

ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS, ANATOMY

• Astronomy

• Study of stars, planets, and other bodies in the sky.

• Physics:

• Focused on changes and properties of matter and energy.

• Anatonomy:

• Studied structure of the human body.

• Examining dead bodies

THEORIES • Ptolemy theory was known as the “geocentric theory”

• “Earth centered”, Sun and planets moved around Earth.

• Nicolaus Copernicus was known as the “heliocentric theory”

• “sun centered”, sun was the center of the universe.

• Many ignored this theory at

first.

• Did not have instruments

or Math to prove his theory.

• Johanne Kepler

• Mathematician that tests Copernicus’ theory by using

• Models, observations, and mathematics.

• Published laws of planetary motion in 1609.

• Galileo Galilei

• Built the telescope: made far away objects smaller.

• Draws sketches of things he witnesses through telescope

• Rings around Saturn, spots on the sun, moons circling Jupiter.

• Publishes work and scholars and church disapprove

• Ptolemy’s theory is right

• Contradicts the bible

• Proved Aristotle’s theory wrong that “heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones.

• He wrote “if there is no friction from air, all objects fall at same rate.”

ISAAC NEWTON• Universal Gravitation

• All bodies attract each other

• Falling objects were really examples of law of universal grav.

• Physics (laws of motion and gravity)

• Math (invented Calculus

• Astronomy: world moved not because

of God, but because of laws of motion

in the universe.

NEWTON’S THREE LAWS OF MOTION • An object in motion tends to stay in

motion, while an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force

• When a force is applied to an object, it accelerates according to the equation a = F/m

(a=acceleration,F=force,m=mass)

• to every action there exists an equal and opposite reaction

• Andreas Vesalius (Flemish Scientist)

• Pioneered the study of anatomy

• 1543 published On the Fabric of the Human Body

• 7 Volume’s – amazing detail, visual understanding of how body works

• William Harvey (English physician)

• Studied circulation of blood

• Described how blood moves through body.

• Functions of the heart.

• Rene Descartes

• Published “Discourse on Method (1637)

• Assumptions had to be proven on basis of known facts.

• “I think, therefore I am.”

• Geometry and algebra, scientific method, astronomy, and the physical sciences.

• Light reflects from a smooth surface.

• Francis Bacon

• Theories could be developed through observation

• No assumption could be trusted unless it could be proven by repeatable experiments.

• Published “Novum Organum”: demonstrate physically, not through just thinking and reasoning.

OTHERS• Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek

• Used microscope to discover bacteria “animalcules”

• Wrote about tiny life forms that were never seen by human eye.

• Robert Boyle

• Developed chemistry: composition of matter and how it changes.

• Temperature and pressure affect the space that a gas occupies.

• Joseph Priestly

• Discovered oxygen

• Antoine Lavoisier names it oxygen

• Showed fire resulted when substance combined withy oxygen.

• Law of conservation of matter.