Scientific Revolution Flashcards
(75 cards)
Medieval view of World
Primarily religious and theological; Political theory based on “divine” right of kings; society governed by church views, traditions and practices; Supersition played a major role
Scientific thoughs in early 16th century based on…
mediveval ideas; views about the universe were largely influenced by ancient ideas of Aristotle; geocentric view ; Science branch of theology
Causes of Scientific Revoltution
Medieval universities; Rediscovering ancient mathematics
Medieval universities
Philosphy had become an accepted discipline; Medieval philiosophers developed a degree of independence from theologians and a sense of free inquiry; Leading universities established new professorships of mathematics, astronomy, and physics w/in their departments of philosophy; Major scientific figures either studied or taught at universities
The Renaissance stimulated science by…
rediscovering ancient mathematics
Renaissance patronage was….as well as artistic and humanistic
scientific
Navigational problems on sea voyages in the age of overseas expansion creaded a need…
for scientific advances
New instruments
telescope, barometer, thermometer, pendulum, clock, microscope, and air pump
Graham College (England)
Scientists worked closely with top officials in Royal Navy and leading merchants and shipbuilders; It became the main center of scientific activity during the first half of 17th century
Scientific metholody
Bacon Formalized empirical, experimental research; Descartes emphasized deductive reasoning
Secularism
emerged and many educated people became openly hostile to religion
The revolution in learning became…
a major foundation in western society
Nicolaus Copernicus
“On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres;” postponed publication of his book fearing a backlash by the scientific community; dedicated the book to Pope Pault 111 and did not intend for his theires to challenge Church doctrine; Heliocentric view
Heliocentric view
Copernicus argued that Earth revolved around the Sun and that the sun was the center of the universe; obserev that the stars didn’t move although the apparent movement of the stars was the result of the earth’s rotation; Made universe see ENOURMOUS
A major anomaly in Heliocentric theory
retrograde motion of planets relative to the earth’s position; Was remedied by the false premise of epicycles
Copernicus directly challenged…
Ptolemy’s view of geocentric universe; Challenged the Bible’s book of Genesis
Religious reaction to the Copernican Theory…
Martin Luther + John Calvin condemmed the theory (b/c all about going back to original scripture); Catholic reaction was initially less forcefull b/c Church didn’t always interpret the Bible literally
Tycho Brahe
Europe’s best astronomer; Build the best observatory in EUrope and fo decades collected massive data on his observations of the COSMOS; Data became a cornerstone of astronomy for centures; Data later proved Copernicus’s theory (though he did not accept the view)
Johann Kepler
first great Protestant scientist who earlier had worked as an assistant to Brahe; Proved the Copernican theory mathematically; Laws of Planetary Motion
Three laws of planetary motion
- Orbits are elliptical; 2. Planets don’t move at uniform speeds while in their orbits; 3. The time it takes for a planet to orbit the sun is directly based on its distance form the sun
Galileo Galilei
developed the laws of motion using the experimental method; Acceleration experiment; Law of Inertia
Acceleration experiment
gravity was a universal force that produced unofrm acceleration; All falling objects descend w/ equal velocity regardless of their weight
Law of Inertia
an object that is in motion remains in motion unitl it is stopped by an external force
Galilei validated…
Copernicus’ heliocentric view with the aid of telescope; First to use telescope as a scientific instrument; Demonstrated that the moon and other planets were not perfectly round orbs like a crystal sphere (the prevailing Medieval view); He discovered the 4 moons of Jupiter
