HST 122 -- Scientific Revolution:                                                                                the Scientists and Astronomers

The Scientific Revolution
        A. Preconditions
                1. humanist discoveries of ancient Greek texts
                        - especially Ptolemy; this proved he was wrong
                            - Ptolemy (c. 100-170) -- Greek astronomer
                            - epicycles = small circular motions within the orbit of a planet
                2. discovery of the New World 
                        - desire to know the geography of the world
                        - Ptolemy's Map
                3. need for a new calendar
                        a. ancient calendar based on imperfect observations of the sun
                        b. calendar is ten days off by 16th century
                4. arms race between new monarchies
                        - prestige, wealth
        B. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) [Polish]
                1. used mathematics to prove that the sun was at the center of
                        the universe (heliocentric view) [IMAGE]
                2. published On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies (1543)
                3. couldn't explain everything; still had a few epicycles
        C. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) [Danish]
                1. king of Denmark was his patron
                        - financed the building of an observatory on an island
                                near Copenhagen [IMAGE]
                2. took precise measurements of the movements of the stars
                        and planets [sextant]
                3. same conclusion as Copernicus
        D. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) [German] 
                1. submitted Brahe's new data to mathematical tests
                2. this led to his laws of planetary motion
                        a. planets follow an elliptical orbit [IMAGE]
                        b. speed of a planet slows when it is furthest from the sun
                        c. constant ratio between distance of a planet from the
                                sun and time it takes to revolve around the sun
        E. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) [Italian] 
                1. first to use a telescope
                        Short Film Clip on Galileo and his telescope (7 min.)
                2. allowed him to see amazing views of the planets and stars
                        a. corroborated that planets revolve around the sun
                        b. saw mountains and valleys on the moon;
                                thus, earth and moon have same form and matter
                3. popularized Copernicus' heliocentric view
                4. pope condemned Copernicus' views when he heard Galileo
                        was trying to publicize them
                5. Galileo wrote Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems
                        of the World (1632); in it, he attacked the old world view
                6. this outraged the church; he was hauled before the inquisition
                        and forced to condemn his errors
                IMAGES: Hevelius' giant telescope (1673)
                    Close-up
        F. Andreas Vesalius (1514-64) [Belgian]
		1. challenged the views of Galen
		2. published On the Fabric of the Human Body (1543)
			- Images: 1, 2, 3
	G. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) [English]
                1. empirical method
                        - do experiments and make observations
                2. inductive reasoning
                        - derive general principles about nature from your data
        H. Isaac Newton (1642-1724) [English]
                1. celebrity during his own lifetime
                2. laws of motion
                        a. objects at rest or in a uniform linear motion will
                                remain in that state unless acted upon by an external force
                        b. any change in the motion of an object is proportional
                                to the force exerted on it
                        c. every action has an equal and opposite reaction
                3. law of gravity
                        - each body in the universe exerts a force on every other body
                                - e.g., earth's mass is much larger than an apple, thus
                                        it pulls the apple to it
       I. What about women?
                - Did they have a role in the Scientific Revolution?
                    - e.g., Margaret Cavendish