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Lecture 19

The scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries transformed European understanding of nature, moving away from ancient Greek theories to a new scientific approach led by figures like Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. Key advancements included the development of the telescope and the formulation of the scientific method, emphasizing observation, reason, and experimentation. This period established a foundation for modern science, culminating in Newton's laws of motion and the integration of physics and astronomy into a cohesive framework.

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Lecture 19

The scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries transformed European understanding of nature, moving away from ancient Greek theories to a new scientific approach led by figures like Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. Key advancements included the development of the telescope and the formulation of the scientific method, emphasizing observation, reason, and experimentation. This period established a foundation for modern science, culminating in Newton's laws of motion and the integration of physics and astronomy into a cohesive framework.

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tanjimalislam2003
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Lecture 23: The Age of

Scientific Revolution
• Of all the many changes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, none had a more far-reaching impact
than the scientific revolution. By creating a new way of understanding how nature worked – and by solving
long standing problems in physics, astronomy, and anatomy – the theorists and experimenters of this period
gave Europeans a new sense of confidence and certainty.
• From Copernicus (1473 – 1543, Prussia (Poland) to Newton (1643- 1727, UK)

- Util the sixteenth century, the study of nature in Europe was inspired by the ancient Greeks:
• Aristotle (384 B.C.- 322 B.C.) in physics, Ptolemy (c. 100 A.D. – 170 A.D., Geocentric model, Earth centered,
Alexandria, Egypt) in astronomy, and Galen (129 A.D., Turkey, was under Rome) in medicine.

- The ancient theories could not account for new observations, without adjustments.
For examples:

(i) Aristotle’s belief that all objects in their natural state are at rest, do not explain why an arrow kept on flying after
it left a bow. (motion [any kind of change]: as the actuality of a potentiality)
(ii) Ptolemy’s picture of the heavens, in which all motion was circular around a central earth (the moon, mercury,
Venus, and the sun), did readily explain the peculiar motion that observers noticed in some planets, which at
times seemed to be moving backward.
(iii) Galen’s anatomical theories were often shown by dissections to be wrong. To him, the body had four liquids:
phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile. Imbalance create health problem.
• Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’ discovery: the telescope, the vacuum pump, the thermometer, the
barometer, and the microscope encouraged the development of a scientific approach, entirely new.

• This scientific approach was to be pioneered by the Englishman Francis Bacon (1561-1626): stated, “Twist
the lion’s tail” (provoke a person).
• The Breakthrough
• Three books published and reprinted in 1543 played significant role.
(i) The structure of the Human Body by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), Brussels, Belgium, Renaissance
Physician produced first text-book of Anatomy.
(ii) On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) Heliocentric theorist,
Renaissance polymath,
(iii) and Archimedes’ text.
•
• In Ptolemaic astronomy, the planets and the sun, attached to transparent, crystalline spheres, revolved
around the earth.
•
• To Copernicus, the calculations of planetary movements under Ptolemy’s system had grown too complex.
•
• Copernicus’ system was, based on clear mathematical interpretation. Thus, became part of intellectual
discussion, drawn on when Pope Gregory XIII (1502 – 1585) decided to reform the calendar in 1582. Result
was from the Julian calendar (Julius Caesar 100 B.C. -- 44 B.C.) to Gregorian calendar, the one we still use.
• Theories in Conflict
• As late as 1600, it seemed that scientists were creating more problems than answers. However, two
brilliant discoverers – Kepler (1571-1630) and Galileo (1564 – 1642) – made major advances on the work
of Copernicus and helped resolve the uncertainties that had arisen in the field of astronomy.
• Kepler and Galileo
• Like Copernicus Kepler believed that only the language of mathematics could describe the movements of
heavens and also believed in sun-centered (heliocentric) theory.
•
• To Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), to study astronomy not only of observation and mathematics but also of
physics.
• The Aristotelian view that a body is naturally at rest and needs to be pushed constantly to keep moving
dominated the study of dynamics. Galileo broke with this tradition. A new type of physical explanation
emerged which was perfected by Isaac Newton half a century later.
•
• Galileo’s conclusion was that:
• any velocity once imparted to a moving body will be rigidly maintained as long as external causes of
acceleration and retardation are removed. … If the velocity is uniform, it will not be diminished or
slackened, much less destroyed.
• This insight overturned the Aristotelian view.
• Galileo’s most celebrated work was in astronomy. He first became famous in 1610, when he published his
discovery, with the telescope, that Jupiter has satellites and the moon has mountains. He described moon’s
secondary light – seen while it is a crescent – as a reflection of sunlight from the earth.
• Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
• Newton made decisive contributions to mathematics, physics, astronomy, and optics brought to a climax the
changes that had begun with Copernicus. He united physics and astronomy into a single system to explain all
motion.
• The most dramatic of Newton’s findings was the solution of the ancient problem of motion. Building on
Galileo’s advances and overturning Aristotle’s theories once and for all, Newton defined his system in three
laws: first, in the absence of force, motion continues in a strait line; second, the rate of change of the motion is
determined by the forces acting on it; and third, action and reaction between two bodies are equal and
opposite.
• Using the concept of gravity, he provided the explanation of the movement of objects in space that is the
foundation for current space travel.
• A New Epistemology
• Scientists were now moving toward a new epistemology, a new theory of how to obtain and verify
knowledge. They stressed (a) experience, (b) reason, and (c) doubt; they rejected all unsubstantiated
authority; and they developed a revolutionary way of determining what was a true description of physical
reality.
• Scientific Method
• The process the scientists said they followed, after they had formulated a hypothesis, consisted of three
parts: first, observations; second, a generalization induced from the observations; and third, tests of the
generalization by experiments whose outcome could be predicted by the generalization.

• Since measurement was the key to the data, the observations had a numerical, not a subjective, value; and
the language of science naturally came to be mathematics.

• Society for Science:


• 1662 in England
• 1666 in France
• 1700 in Germany

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