Post on 12-Jan-2016
THE “SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION,” ORTHE CROOKED PATH TOWARD NEWTONIAN PHYSICS
1543Copernicus publishes On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies
1576 Tycho Brahe builds an observatory
1609Johannes Kepler proposes the model of elliptical orbits around the sun
1632Galileo Galilei publishes the Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World (only accepted by the Vatican in 1984)
1637 Descartes, Discourse on Method
1687Sir Isaac Newton publishes the Principia mathematica, or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
The Ptolemaic, geocentric
theory of the universe
The apparent path of Mars, as seen from the earth in 2005/06
The model of “epicycles” developed byPtolemaic astronomers
Illustration from Copernicus, The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (1543)
Tycho Brahe’s underground observatory at Stellaborg (1580)
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), observing the
heavens
The models of Ptolemy, Copernicus, & Brahe (1600)
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) solved
the problem by postulating elliptical
orbits
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum (1620): “Many will travel, and knowledge will be increased.”
René Descartes, author of the Discourse on Method
(1637)
Portrait of Galileo Galilei (1563-1642)
Galileo’s map of the moon, 1609:The telescope showed that the moon was subject to decay
The Aristotelian theory of “impetus” –Galileo postulated the principle of “inertia” instead
The principle of “inertia” suggested a new approach to both ballistics and celestial mechanics, vector analysis
Galileo published his
Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the
World in 1632
Otto von Guericke demonstrates the power of the vacuum (Magdeburg, 1663)
A physician & monk rebuke a barber/surgeon for performing a dissection
Andreas Vesalius dissecting a
cadaver(1547)
Portrait of William Harvey (1578-1657),
who discovered the pulmonary circulation of
the blood
Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679): “In the state of nature, the life
of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish
and short.”
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651): “Man is but a machine…”
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727),
who discovered the universal law of
gravitation, the three laws of
thermodynamics, & differential calculus;
he published the Principia
Mathematica in 1687.
Newton’s range of interests: calculus,
monetary exchange rates, and New
Testament Greek
The ornate tomb of Sir Isaac Newton in
Westminster Abbey
The Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, 1698, founded by King Louis XIV