What was the Scientific Revolution? It is the period in history that marked the beginning of modern science. This period extended from the middle of the 16th century throughout most of the 17th century. Explore key scientific revolution inventions and discoveries. The scientific revolution is believed to have begun with a new understanding of the universe. Prior to the Scientific Revolution, people believed the Earth was the center of the universe. It was commonly believed that the other planets and the sun revolved around the Earth. In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published a new theory in his book On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres. With his theory of a heliocentric universe, Copernicus asserted that the sun is the universe's center, with all planets revolving around it. This assertion was based on decades of work as an astronomer. In his book, Copernicus focused first on disproving the previous theory, which is a strategy for separating sound, correct science from examples of pseudoscience. While his theory was controversial at the time, it has long-since been verified as correct. The 1543 introduction of Copernicus' new theory of the universe is often credited with launching the Scientific Revolution, the point in history in which the way people understood the world drastically changed as fact-based scientific discoveries were made. Many advances followed over the coming century and beyond. The scientific revolution is generally said to have taken place from 1543-1687, though not all sources agree on the exact starting and ending dates. The work done during this time continues to influence modern scientific research and thought. New ways of thinking about the universe led to the development of many historically significant ideas and discoveries.
The Scientific Revolution wasn't just about the development of new theories. Advanced knowledge paved the way for many innovative inventions during the Scientific Revolution.
These early scientific ideas and inventions revealed many truths about science that empowered people to be able to understand the natural world. The groundbreaking work of the Scientific Revolution underlies what humans know about living things and the universe today. Many discoveries and advancements have been made since this time, with more to come in the future. Explore some of these advancements by discovering a few inventions from the Industrial Revolution. The world will always need scientists to power the way to new discoveries. If you're interested in science, start building a strong foundation that just may allow you to pursue science as a career. Learn everything you can, starting with building a basic vocabulary of science terms before moving into astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, or another area of scientific study. In the 16th and 17th centuries, European scientists began increasingly applying quantitative measurements to the measurement of physical phenomena on the earth, which translated into the rapid development of mathematics and physics.
Distinguish between the different key figures of the scientific revolution and their achievements in mathematics and physics
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Under the scientific method that was defined and applied in the 17th century, natural and artificial circumstances were abandoned, and a research tradition of systematic experimentation was slowly accepted throughout the scientific community. The philosophy of using an inductive approach to nature—to abandon assumption and to attempt to simply observe with an open mind—was in strict contrast with the earlier, Aristotelian approach of deduction, by which analysis of known facts produced further understanding. In practice, many scientists (and philosophers) believed that a healthy mix of both was needed—the willingness to question assumptions, yet also to interpret observations assumed to have some degree of validity. That principle was particularly true for mathematics and physics. René Descartes, whose thought emphasized the power of reasoning but also helped establish the scientific method, distinguished between the knowledge that could be attained by reason alone (rationalist approach), which he thought was mathematics, and the knowledge that required experience of the world, which he thought was physics.
To the extent that medieval natural philosophers used mathematical problems, they limited social studies to theoretical analyses of local speed and other aspects of life. The actual measurement of a physical quantity, and the comparison of that measurement to a value computed on the basis of theory, was largely limited to the mathematical disciplines of astronomy and optics in Europe. In the 16th and 17th centuries, European scientists began increasingly applying quantitative measurements to the measurement of physical phenomena on Earth.
While the dates of the scientific revolution are disputed, the publication in 1543 of Nicolaus Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) is often cited as marking the beginning of the scientific revolution.
Galileo was one of the first modern thinkers to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical. In broader terms, his work marked another step towards the eventual separation of science from both philosophy and religion, a major development in human thought. Galileo showed a remarkably modern appreciation for the proper relationship between mathematics, theoretical physics, and experimental physics. He understood the parabola, both in terms of conic sections and in terms of the ordinate (y) varying as the square of the abscissa (x). He further asserted that the parabola was the theoretically ideal trajectory of a uniformly accelerated projectile in the absence of friction and other disturbances. Newton’s Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, which dominated scientists’ view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. By deriving Kepler’s laws of planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, and then using the same principles to account for the trajectories of comets, the tides, the precession of the equinoxes, and other phenomena, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the cosmos. This work also demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth, and of celestial bodies, could be described by the same principles. His prediction that Earth should be shaped as an oblate spheroid was later vindicated by other scientists. His laws of motion were to be the solid foundation of mechanics; his law of universal gravitation combined terrestrial and celestial mechanics into one great system that seemed to be able to describe the whole world in mathematical formulae. Newton also developed the theory of gravitation. After the exchanges with Robert Hooke, English natural philosopher, architect, and polymath, he worked out proof that the elliptical form of planetary orbits would result from a centripetal force inversely proportional to the square of the radius vector. The scientific revolution also witnessed the development of modern optics. Kepler published Astronomiae Pars Optica (The Optical Part of Astronomy) in 1604. In it, he described the inverse-square law governing the intensity of light, reflection by flat and curved mirrors, and principles of pinhole cameras, as well as the astronomical implications of optics, such asparallax and the apparent sizes of heavenly bodies. Willebrord Snellius found the mathematical law of refraction, now known as Snell’s law, in 1621. Subsequently, Descartes showed, by using geometric construction and the law of refraction (also known as Descartes’ law), that the angular radius of a rainbow is 42°. He also independently discovered the law of reflection. Finally, Newton investigated the refraction of light, demonstrating that a prism could decompose white light into a spectrum of colors, and that a lens and a second prism could recompose the multicolored spectrum into white light. He also showed that the colored light does not change its properties by separating out a colored beam and shining it on various objects. Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Giusto Sustermans, 1636Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) improved the telescope, with which he made several important astronomical discoveries, including the four largest moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the rings of Saturn, and made detailed observations of sunspots. He developed the laws for falling bodies based on pioneering quantitative experiments, which he analyzed mathematically. Dr. William Gilbert, in De Magnete, invented the New Latin word electricus from ἤλεκτρον (elektron), the Greek word for “amber.” Gilbert undertook a number of careful electrical experiments, in the course of which he discovered that many substances were capable of manifesting electrical properties. He also discovered that a heated body lost its electricity, and that moisture prevented the electrification of all bodies, due to the now well-known fact that moisture impaired the insulation of such bodies. He also noticed that electrified substances attracted all other substances indiscriminately, whereas a magnet only attracted iron. The many discoveries of this nature earned for Gilbert the title of “founder of the electrical science.” Robert Boyle also worked frequently at the new science of electricity, and added several substances to Gilbert’s list of electrics. In 1675, he stated that electric attraction and repulsion can act across a vacuum. One of his important discoveries was that electrified bodies in a vacuum would attract light substances, this indicating that the electrical effect did not depend upon the air as a medium. He also added resin to the then known list of electrics. By the end of the 17th Century, researchers had developed practical means of generating electricity by friction with an anelectrostatic generator, but the development of electrostatic machines did not begin in earnest until the 18th century, when they became fundamental instruments in the studies about the new science of electricity. The first usage of the word electricity is ascribed to Thomas Browne in 1646 work. In 1729, Stephen Gray demonstrated that electricity could be “transmitted” through metal filaments. Treasures of the RAS: Starry Messenger by Galileo Galilei: In 1610, Galileo published this book describing his observations of the sky with a new invention – the telescope. In it he describes his discovery of the moons of Jupiter, of stars too faint to be seen by the naked eye, and of mountains on the moon. The book was the first scientific publication to be based on data from a telescope. It was an important step towards our modern understanding of the solar system. The Latin title is Sidereus Nuncius, which translates as Starry Messenger, or Sidereal Message. |