Talking Points Chapter 18

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Talking Points Chapter 18

• Scientific Revolution

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Astronomy in 1500

• Aristotelian View of Universe
• Celestial spheres vs. heavy sublunar (earthly)
  world
• Home for God and place for humans at center of
  universe
• Ptolemaic View
• Accounts for irregularities in planetary motion,
  based on earth-centered model
• Invented concept of retrograde motion

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Heliocentric Diagram by Nicolaus Copernicus,
1543Note the medieval worldview as evidenced in
the outer ring
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Reactions to Copernicus

• Published in year of his death, 1543
• Luther, Calvin denounce his theology
• Catholic church eventually denounces him, along
  with Galileo in early 17th century

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Brahe to Galileo

• Tycho Brahe (Danish)
• observant
• Johannes Kepler (German)
• Mathematical wizard
• Laws of Planetary Motion elliptical orbits, not
  uniform speed of motion, distance from sun
  influences speed of travel

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Keplers Law of Planetary Motion
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Galileo

• Experimental (scientific) method
• Gravity uniform acceleration
• Inertia law
• Telescope moon is lumpy, Jupiter has moons
• Importance?

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Newton

• Newtonian synthesis
• stood on shoulders of giants
• Principia (1687)
• Law of universal gravitation
• mass does matter
• Distance does matter

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Causes of Scientific Revolution

• Medieval universities
• Great thinkers of SciRev were professors
• Renaissance discoveries
• Greek mathematicians rediscovered
• Navigational needs
• Scientific Methodology Bacon and Descartes

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Francis Bacon (England)

• Inductive reasoning empiricism
• Scientific method
• Anti-theoretical cant see or touch it, it
  isnt true

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Rene Descartes

• Deductive Reasoning (de -gt des)
• Deduce general principles based on observations
• Rigid dogmatic rationalism
• Ex medicine
• Cartesian dualism (important?) -- spirit and mind

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Consequences of Scientific Revolution

• Expansion of knowledge
• Community of scientists Europe-wide
• Scientific method
• Focus on theory little practical application to
  make lives better