Scientific Revolution and the

EnlightenmentEQ- What was the

Scientific Revolution, and how did it begin?

Geocentric Theory Most people at this time

believed that Earth was the center of the universe because God created people and he created the universe to serve people.

The people’s home, Earth, would then be the center of the universe.

This was known as the geocentric theory.

Nicolaus Copernicus

(Polish) Started the scientific age in the 1500s. He stated that Earth was round, and rotated on its axis around the sun. The sun stayed still at the center of the universe.

The idea that the Earth goes around the sun is the heliocentric theory.

Nicolaus Copernicus

His ideas could mean persecution, excommunication or imprisonment.

He spent over 25 years writing his ideas. Right before his death his friends helped him publish them. (No mathematics to prove theories).

Hypotheses – theories that attempt to explain a set of facts.

Tycho Brahe (Danish) Set up

an observatory to study heavenly bodies.

He accumulated much data on planetary movements.

Johannes Kepler (German) A

mathematician and astronomer used Brahe’s data and mathematics to prove Copernicus’ theories.

He proved planets went around the sun and that they went in ellipses or ovals.

Their movement also changes speed. They get faster as they approach the sun.

Galileo Galilei (Italian) Said that since all heavenly bodies like

moons did not go around the sun that all planets may not either. He published his ideas in 1632.

Built his own telescope and supported heliocentric theory.

Pope Urban VIII banned the book and asked Galileo to come to Rome and stand trial. After threats of torture and death he withdrew his statements.

Afterwards he worked on Physics. He established the Law of Inertia. This law states that an object will stay at rest or move in a straight line unless acted upon by outside forces.

Galileo GalileiGalileo Galilei

Francis Bacon (English) He said that

ideas based on unproven facts should be discarded completely.

He helped develop the Scientific Method. Observation, Hypothesis, Experiments, Conclusion, Repeated, Law.

Rene Descartes (French) Invented

analytical geometry. How do we know that

we know what we know?

He doubted everything but his own existence.

He said, “I think therefore I am.”

Isaac Newton

(English) He was a below average student at Cambridge University with few friends. He almost dropped out of school. A teacher recognized his potential and began tutoring him.

Discovered that the same force rules all motion. Law of universal gravitation.

He explained why things do not fall off the earth and why planets stay in their orbit. To prove his theories he developed calculus.

Galen Ancient Greeks

Dissected apes and dogs because Roman law forbade human dissection.

He discovered blood in arteries.

He thought the liver digested food into blood. This hypothesis held up for 1,000 years.

Andreas VesaliusAndreas Vesalius He was a

Frenchman who was one of the first to dissect a human body.

In 1543 he published, On the Structure of the Human Body.

Edward JennerEdward Jenner (English) introduced vaccine for small

pox. Realized cow pox inoculation was safer.

William Harvey He concluded the

heart pumps blood throughout the body.

Blood traveled through the body through arteries. It returned to the heart by way of the veins.

Robert Hooke An Englishman

who discovered the cell.

He used the new microscope to see cells in vegetable tissue.

Robert Boyle Irish chemist. When

he was born in 1627 most chemistry was alchemy. They tried to turn metals to gold and silver.

Boyle’s Law: explains how temperature, pressure & volume affect each other.

Joseph Priestly An English chemist

who in 1774 discovered oxygen.

His studies led to the invention of carbonated drinks.

Antoine Lavoisier

Known as the “Father of Modern Chemistry”.

He discovered that oxygen has to be present with flammable material in order for combustion to occur.