Summary of Today's Topic

 Influence of Scientific Revolution: The "Scientific Revolution" occurred between 1500 and 1700. It started with Copernicus and his ideas about removing the Earth from the center of the universe and instead placing the sun in the center and have the Earth revolve around it (among other things) and ended with Newton. The Scientific Revolution can be split into two halves. One being from 1500-1600 where there took place a "Renaissance Science". The other from 1600-1700 where there took place the deliberate effort to overturn all ancient scientific notions.

General Characteristics of Scientific Revolution:

• Rejection of "common sense" theories of the world
• Renewed emphasis of quantitative (mathematical) properties
• Nature is equated with a Machine
• Appearance of new data (telescope, microscope, vacuum pump, the Americas)
• Development of a new experimental method
• Abandonment of the search for demonstrative knowledge and ultimate causes

Implications of Copernicanism:

• The universe is much larger than perviously thought
• The Earth is simply a planet
• Stars are suns, possibly with planets circling them
• A new version of Principle of Plenitude (distinctly theological)- it was a waste of God's power if he didn't fill the big universe with something
• The "Copernican Principle"- all areas of space are more or less like all other areas of space- they are all roughly equal

Galileo:

• Came up with "new physics," that were compatible with a moving earth
• One of the first to use a high resolution telescope
• Looked at moon and sunspots
• Discovered 4 moons of Jupiter

Primary Sources

Key Terms, Definitions, and People

Aristotle - believer in geocentrism and the fifth element (quintessence).

Ptolemy - developed the mathmatical application of the geocentric idea.

             - eccentric circle - explained various motions of the sun

Copernicus - rewrites Ptolemy, swapping the earth and the sun (heliocentrism)

Copernicanism- ideas based on a copernican system

Kepler-  Claimed that God was a geometrist by the way that all of the planets fit into the solar system.

Relevant Links

The First Telescopes

The Start of Scientific Cosmology - Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Kepler