Slides to accompany 22.1

1. European Scientific
Revolution
1500-1700s
Sunday, March 15, 2009

2. Objectives
List circumstances that led to the Scientific Revolution
in Europe
Summarize the development of the heliocentric theory
Describe the scientific method and explain Newton’s
law of gravity
Describe the importance of the scientific method in
different fields
Sunday, March 15, 2009

3. Ancient & Medieval
“Science”
The universe is made of concentric spheres of 4
elements: earth, water, air, and fire (and space is made
of “aether”)
The earth (specifically the Garden of Eden) is at the
center of the universe, and all things revolve around it
(geocentric theory)
Heavy objects naturally move “down” and light objects
move “up”
Sunday, March 15, 2009

4. Sunday, March 15, 2009

5. New ideas
Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, telescopic
heliocentric theory, 1543 observation of Jupiter’s
moons & Luna’s surface,
Andreas Vesalius, 1609
circulatory system &
Johannes Kepler, laws of
skeleton, 1543
planetary motion, 1609
Tycho Brahe, observations
Renes Descartes,
of planets, late-1600s
Discourse on Method, 1637
William Gilbert, theory of
Antony van Leeuwenhoek,
magnetism & electricity,
microscopic observations,
1600
1660
Si Francis Bacon,
Isaac Newton, law of
reductionism, 1620
universal gravitation, 1687
Sunday, March 15, 2009

6. Aristotle and Ptolemy
Sunday, March 15, 2009

7. Copernicus
Sunday, March 15, 2009

8. Galileo’s
observations
Sunday, March 15, 2009

9. Galileo Galilei
1564 - 1642, Tuscan physicist,
mathematician, astronomer,
and philosopher
Improved telescopic techology
Observed three of Jupiter’s
moons and Luna’s surface,
published findings in Starry
Messenger
Sunday, March 15, 2009

10. Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30:
quot;the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved.quot;
Psalm 104:5 says, quot;the LORD set the earth on its
foundations; it can never be moved.quot;
Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that quot;And the sun rises and sets
and returns to its placequot;
Sunday, March 15, 2009

11. Placed on trial before the Roman Inquisition
Galileo was found to be quot;vehemently suspect of
heresyquot;, namely of having held the opinions that the
Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, that
the Earth is not at its centre and moves, and that one
may hold and defend an opinion as probable after it
has been declared contrary to Holy Scripture.
He was ordered imprisoned; the sentence was later
commuted to house arrest.
His offending Dialogue was banned; and in an action
not announced at the trial, publication of any of his
works was forbidden, including any he might write in
the future.
Sunday, March 15, 2009

12. The Inquisition’s publication ban was lifted in 1718
In 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for the
Church’s handling of the Galileo case
In March 2008, the Vatican announced plans to erect a
statue to Galileo within the walls of the Vatican
Sunday, March 15, 2009

13. Newton’s laws
First law: An object in motion stays in motion and an
object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by
another force
Second law: F = ma
Third law: For every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction
Sunday, March 15, 2009