Scientific Revolution Short Essay

“Scientific Revolution”

The Scientific Revolution began in 1543 when Nicolaus Copernicus published his book De reloutionibus erbium colestium also known as On The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. In this book he wrote about his new theory which broke the old Ptolemaic theory. Copernicus argued that the sun does not revolve around the Earth like the Ptolemaic theory said. He said that the Earth revolves around the Sun and the Sun is the center of the universe. Even though this theory went better with things people at the time observed; they still did not welcome it. It went against the popular scientific theories at the time and it also went against religious beliefs that said the earth and humanity were unique creations of god.

After sometime the Copernican model influenced more astronomers to look at astronomy in a new way. They began to use precise observational data and mathematical reasoning to come up with there theories and ideas about space. This way of thinking also spread to more things then astronomy. People applied the analytical methods learned from the Copernican theory to mechanics - which is the study of moving bodies. By the mid seventeenth century this way of thinking changed the study of our world, and brought the scientific revolution.

There are two mathematicians that played a major role in bringing the Copernican theory into mainstream thinking. The first being Johannes Kepler of Germany who showed that planetary orbits are elliptical and not circular like the Ptolemaic theory said. Then the second being Galileo Galilei who invented the telescope. With the telescope he was able to observe that space was not a perfect place that Ptolemaic astronomers thought it was. He saw that there were spots on the sun and mountains on the moon. He also saw stars that weren’t visible to the naked eye, which proved that the universe was much bigger then was previously suspected.

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