Scientific Revolution
Done by:Madhu.K
Francis Bacon
Birth-22 January 1561 >>> Death-9 April 1626
Importance/Significance
Invention-Hypothesis
In order to test potential truths, or hypotheses, Bacon devised a method whereby scientists set up experiments to manipulate nature, and attempt to prove their hypotheses wrong. For example, in order to test the idea that sickness came from external causes, Bacon argued that scientists should expose healthy people to outside influences such as coldness, wetness, or other sick people to discover if any of these external variables resulted in more people getting sick. Knowing that many different causes for sickness might be missed by humans who are unable or unwilling to perceive them, Bacon insisted that experiments must be consistently repeated before truth can be known: a scientist must show that patients exposed to a specific variable more frequently got sick again, and again, and again.Although modern scientists have revised many of the truths subsequently adopted by Bacon and his contemporaries, we still utilize the method of proving knowledge to be true via doubt and experimentation that Bacon laid out in 1620. Bacon's philosophical work marks a very significant breakthrough for the study of the world around us, but it is important to stress that this method of investigation was not completed in a vacuum. Rather, Bacon's work should be seen as a part of a widespread cultural revolution accelerated by the rise of the printing press in the fifteenth century.
Isaac Newton
25 December 1642 >>> 20 March 1726
Importance/Significance
- Gravity - Newton is probably most famous for discovering gravity. Outlined in the Principia, his theory about gravity helped to explain the movements of the planets and the Sun. This theory is known today as Newton's law of universal gravitation.
- Laws of Motion - Newton's laws of motion were three fundamental laws of physics that laid the foundation for classical mechanics.
- Calculus - Newton invented a whole new type of mathematics which he called "fluxions." Today we call this math calculus and it is an important type of math used in advanced engineering and science.
- Reflecting Telescope - In 1668 Newton invented the reflecting telescope. This type of telescope uses mirrors to reflect light and form an image. Nearly all of the major telescopes used in astronomy today are reflecting telescopes.
Invention-Gravity
Nicolaus Copernicus
19 February 1473 >>> 24 May 1543
Importance/Significance
Nicolaus Copernicus’ contribution to the astronomical history was large and it was a huge impact as well. He changed the way of thinking, not only astronomically but also religiously. This was because the Catholic teachings were based on the theory
Earth Centered Universe that the Universe was Earth centered. It also went against the theory that a Greek astronomer Ptolemy argued about, the theory that the Earth was a stationary sphere that was in the center of the Universe and that the other planets (including the Sun) was orbiting around the Earth. This theory had been thought up of in 150 A.D. and had been used since then, so it was taken in widely, making Copernicus’ theory a very large impact. Even though Copernicus’ theory most went up against those two obstacles, many still had problems with this theory because if the Earth was orbiting and spinning, many thought that if one jumped up, then one would be left behind in that very spot, so the person would travel, which of course they knew did not happen. Even so, in the end, Copernicus’ theory was correct.
Invention-The Copernican System
Copernicus was the first scientist of any regard to propose that the Sun did not revolve around the Earth. His theory, which ran counter to all scientific claims at the time, was that the Earth was actually the center of the solar system and everything orbited around it. In the Copernican System, he proposed that all of the known heavenly bodies actually orbited around the Sun, which did not move at all. His initial vision of the universe that was known at the time was surprisingly accurate.
What is truly unique about all of his observations is that he made them without the use of a telescope as it hadn’t been invented as of yet. Unlike some of his later contemporaries that followed up his work, Copernicus wasn’t jailed because of his theories that ran against the charter of the Church at the time. This system serves today as the beginning of modern astronomy.
Galileo Galilei
Birth-15 February 1564 >>> Death-8 January 1642
Importance/Significance
Invention-(Planets)
Johannes Kepler
Birth-December 27, 1571 >>> Death-November 15, 1630
Importance/Significance
Throughout his life, Kepler was a profoundly religious man. All his writings contain numerous references to God, and he saw his work as a fulfilment of his Christian duty to understand the works of God. Man being, as Kepler believed, made in the image of God, was clearly capable of understanding the Universe that He had created. Moreover, Kepler was convinced that God had made the Universe according to a mathematical plan (a belief found in the works of Plato and associated with Pythagoras). Since it was generally accepted at the time that mathematics provided a secure method of arriving at truths about the world (Euclid's common notions and postulates being regarded as actually true), we have here a strategy for understanding the Universe. Since some authors have given Kepler a name for irrationality, it is worth noting that this rather hopeful epistemology is very far indeed from the mystic's conviction that things can only be understood in an imprecise way that relies upon insights that are not subject to reason. Kepler does indeed repeatedly thank God for granting him insights, but the insights are presented as rational.
Invention-(The Third Law)
Kepler had fixated on trying to find a pattern or structure for the spacing of the planets. By this point, he had realized that his perfect solids universe was mathematically unfeasible. But Kepler had a new vision, one that encompassed math, astronomy, music, and God. Kepler argued that the same harmonies we find in music were embedded in the geometrical proportions of the universe.Kepler searched for any consistency that he might interpret as a harmonic pattern. He finally found a relationship that worked: the speed of the planets around their orbits versus their distance from the sun. Kepler's third law states that the distance a planet is from the sun, cubed, is directly proportional to the time it takes to complete the orbit, squared. More simply, Kepler found that the distance a planet was located from the sun directly determined the time it took that planet to revolve around the sun. This was the first time anyone had discovered the exact relationship between these two quantities – in fact, this was the first time anyone had even thought to wonder about the relationship.
William Harvey
Birth-1 April 1578 >>> Death-3 June 1657
Importance/Significance
Invention-Circulation of blood
Harvey was able to make his discoveries because he ignored medical text books, preferring his own observations and the deductions he made during dissections of animals.Remarkably, western medical beliefs – and theories about blood and circulation – had advanced little since Galen wrote his medical textbooks in Rome 1400 years earlier.Harvey’s knowledge came from observations he made of blood flowing through the veins and arteries of living animals that he cut open. Through modern eyes, his living dissections look cruel, and there were no anesthetics in Harvey’s time. Nevertheless, it is how we arrived at an understanding of blood and its circulation in the body.Harvey finally put to rest some of the errors Galen had made so many years earlier. Yet Galen did not get everything wrong. Some of his teachings were useful. At one point Galen had to flee from Rome because his methods threatened the careers of Rome’s quack physicians.
Andreas Vesalius
Birth-31 December 1514 >>> Death-15 October 1564
Importance/Significance
During that time, scholars thought that the work of the ancient Greek physician Galen was an authority when it came to human anatomy. As Greek and Roman laws had disallowed the dissection of human beings, Galen had evidently reasoned out analogies related to human anatomy after studying pigs and apes. Vesalius knew that it was absolutely essential to analyze real corpses to study the human body.
Invention-(Medical findings)
- Vesalius believed the skeletal system to be the framework of the human body. It was in this opening chapter, or book, of De fabrica that Vesalius made several of his strongest claims against Galen's theories and writings which he had put in his anatomy books. In his extensive study of the skull, Vesalius claimed that the mandible consisted of one bone, whereas Galen had thought it was two separate bones. He accurately described the vestibule in the interior of the temporal bone of the skull.
- Vesalius' most impressive contribution to the study of the muscular system may be the illustrations that accompany the text in De fabrica, which would become known as the "muscle men". He describes the source and position of each muscle of the body as well as providing information on their respective operations.
- He also observed the small size of the caecal appendix in man and gave the first good account of the mediastinum and pleura.
- Upon studying the optic nerve, Vesalius came to the conclusion that nerves were not hollow.
- Against Galen's theory and many beliefs he also discovered that there was no hole in the septum or heart.
- Vesalius disproved Galen's assertion that men have more teeth than women.
Robert Boyle
Birth-25 January 1627 >>> Death-31 December 1691
Importance/Significance
Invention-(Properties of the Air and Vacuum)
Furthermore, he showed light can travel through a vacuum, because when air was pumped out of the jar, everything in the jar remained perfectly visible.