Science and technology in the middle ages

1. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
IN THE MIDDLE AGES
MARK JASON M. BLAYA

2. MEDIEVAL PERIOD EXPLAINED
•THE PERIOD FROM 450 A.D. IS COMMONLY
CALLED THE MIDDLE AGES.
•THIS IS USUALLY DIVIDED INTO THE SO
CALLED DARK AGES, FROM 450 A.D. TO
1450 A.D.

3. • THE ECONOMY OF THE MIDDLE AGES FROM THE 5TH
CENTURY MAY BEE DESCRIBED AS FEUDAL.
• THE ECONOMIC BASIS OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM WAS LAND
MARKED BY ITS INDEPENDENCE ON LOCAL
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION MOSTLY CONSUMED ON
THE SPOT AND ON HANDICRAFT INDUSTRY.
• BY THE 11TH CENTURY TOWNS WERE WELL ESTABLISHED
AND BY THE 12TH THEY WERE GROWING IN NORTHERN
FRANCE , ENGLAND AND GERMANY.

4. DECLINE OF SCIENCE IN EUROPE
• THE FALL OF ROMAN EMPIRE WAS FOLLOWED BY THE EXTINCTION OF
ADMINISTRATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE THROUGHOUT EUROPE.
• CIVILIZATION HAS STOPPED. THE STANDARD OF LIVING IS COMPARABLE TO
THAT OF AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION.
• SCIENCE RETREATED. POVERTY WAS ENDEMIC, AND PEOPLE SUFFERED FROM
WAR, FAMINE AND EPEDEMICS.

5. • THEY HAVE LITTLE INTEREST IN THEORETICAL SCIENCE.
• CHRISTIANITY AS A STATE RELIGION HAVE BEEN INIMICAL TO SCIENCE. THEY
ARE LESS INTERESTED IN HOW NATURE WORK AND FOCUSED IN THE IDEA THAT
THE WORLD WILL COME TO AN END SOON.
• MEDICINE IS AN EXCEPTION TO THE GENERAL DECLINE BECAUSE CHRISTIAN FELT
THAT IT IS THEIR DUTY TO HELP THE SICK, SO THE STUDY OF MEDICINE
CONTINUED. THEY INCORPORATED THE STUDY OF HIPPOCRATES AND GALEN IN
MONASTERIES.

7.  The first Chinese writing was on flat shoulder bones
of cattle and tortoise shells.
 During this period China became the most
technically advanced Country in the world.
 Paper- paper making started in 140 B.C. but was
officially used in writing starting in 105 A.D.. Paper
was also used for clothing, wall décor, art work and
even in toilet.
 Seismograph- a bronze vessel with pendulum
sensitive to vibration was invented to detect
earthquakes in the 2nd century A.D.

8.  Physics - motion of solid objects was thought to
be caused by force and cessation of
motion due to obstacle. Studies of magnets and
magnetism were done in China long
before the same was initiated in Europe.
Physical theories - events and phenomena are due
to the interaction between feminine
principle YIN and the male principle YAN.
 Science – It was qualitative and dynamic.

9. World View
Organicist views are which every phenomenon was connected with hierarchical
order.
Mathematics
The ancient Chinese expressed numbers decimally and analytically. Decimal
place-value and a blank space for zero had began in earlier than anywhere else in
the
ancient world together with the metrology. They knew how to extract square root
and evaluate the value of n, equations and sum of various series.

19. 1570 COMPASS

20. SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS IN
INDIA
• RECOGNITION OF ROLE OF ZERO AS A NUMBER NOT A DEVICE TO MAKE
WRITTEN EXPRESSION OF NUMBERS UNAMBIGUOUS IN A PLACE-VALUE SYSTEM
• MATHEMATICS MORE FOCUSED IN LARGE NUMBERS INFLUENCES BY THE
ALGEBRAIC EXPRESSIONS OF BABYLONIANS
• THEY USED THE DECIMAL SYSTEM
• IN ASTRONOMY THEY BEGAN IN CALENDAR COMPUTATION BASED ON THE
MOTION OF MOON AND STARS.
• WITH THE INFLUENCE OF BABYLONIA AND GREECE THEY DEVELOP SPHERICAL
TRIGONOMETRY . SINE IS DERIVED FROM INDIAN WORD.
• MEDICINE DEVELOPED BASED ON PREVENTING DISEASES AND ON HYGIENE.

21. ARAB SCIENCE
• ISLAMIC CULTURE FLOURISHED ABOUT 700 TO 1300. THEY BECAME THE MOST
ADVANCED CIVILIZATION IN THE WESTERN WORLD
• AZIMUTH AND ALBEGRA WERE IN ARAB ORIGINS
• THEY HAVE COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY WITH INDIA AND CHINA; TURKISH, JEWS,
CHRISTIAN THAT BROUGHT CHANGES TO THE ARAB THINKING
• CALIPH AL-MA’MUN FOUNDED A HOUSE OF WISDOM IN BAGHDAD THAT WAS
THE CENTER OF MATHEMATICAL RESEARCH AND ASTRONOMICAL
OBSERVATORY.
• GALEN’S MEDICAL WRITINGS AND PTOLEMY’S ON ASTRONOMY WERE
TRANSLATED IN THIS SCHOOL

22. • THEY COMPILED ASTRONOMICAL TABLES OF PLANETARY AND
STELLAR POSITION (AL-ZARKALI)
• MATHEMATICS BLOSSOMED. IT WAS ROOTED IN COMBINATION OF
MATHEMATICAL KNOWLEDGE IN GREECE AND INDIA
• IN CHEMISTRY SUBSTANCES DISCOVERED IN ANTIQUITY WAS
PREPARED, SUCH AS BORAX AND SAL-AMMONIAC
• IN PHYSICS THEY FOCUSED IN CRAFTING INSTRUMENTS
• MEDICINE WAS HIGHLY DEVELOPED. HOSPITALS ARE
CONSTRUCTED WITH COMPLETE INFRASTRUCTURE IN HEALTH
CARE AND WITH LICENSED PHYSICIANS
• ANATOMY DID NOT PROGRESS BECAUSE DISCECTOMY IS
FORBIDDEN IN ISLAMIC LAW

23. REVIVAL OF SCIENCE IN EUROPE
• IN 12TH CENTURY SCIENCE RETURNED TO EUROPE
• EMPEROR CHARLEMAGNE DECREED THAT EVERY MONASTERY MUST HAVE A
SCHOOL. THESE SCHOOLS WAS THE FORERUNNERS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDIES.
THEY ARE GREATLY INFLUENCED BY THEIR CONTACT WITH THE ISLAMIC
CULTURE.
• GREEK WORKS WERE TRANSLATED BY SCHOLARS FROM 1150 -1270
• GERARD OF CREMONA TRANSLATED PTOLOMY’S “ALMAGEST” FROM ARABIC TO
LATIN; ARISTOTLE’S , EUCLID’S ELEMENTS, AND THE WORK OF GALEN AND
HIPPOCRATES

24. • ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ONE OF FOUNDERS OF SCHOLASTIC
SCHOOLS CLAIMED THAT “ KNOWLEDGE CAN BE OBTAINED
THROUGH BOTH RELIGIOUS FAITH AND NATURAL REASON. HE
ALSO BELIEVED THAT THE TEACHING OF PLATO AND
ARISTOTLE WERE COMPARABLE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
• IN 1210 PARISIAN SYNOD DECREED THAT CERTAIN OF
ARISTOTLE’S WORKS COULD NOT BE TAUGHT IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF PARIS; THEY SAID; THAT ARISTOTILE’S WORKS
IMPLY THAT GOD DID NOT CREATE THE WORLD, THAT THERE
CAN BE NO TRANSUBSTANTIATION OF THE HOST WINE
DURING COMMUNION, THAT MIRACLES CANNOT OCCUR,
AND THAT SOULS DOES NOT SURVIVE THE BODY.

25. TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION OF THE MIDDLE
AGES
New horse harness-the horse-collar pulling on the shoulders of
the horse instead of a band hugging his breast, allowed the
horse to increased its "attractive” effort five times.
 The water-mill and Windmill-watermill was invented in the
stone age. By a using suitable mechanism, it rotary motion could
be converted to reciprocal
motion making it a source of general power.
Windmill from Persia reached Europe about 1100A.D. It was
primarily for blowing bellows, filling cloth, forging iron, sawing,
weaving and threashing.

29. Carruca (Heavy Plough )
 A type of heavy wheeled plough commonly found in Northern Europe.[4] The device
consisted of four major parts.

30. Floating crane
Beside the stationary cranes, floating cranes which could be flexibly deployed in the whole port
basin came into use by the 14th century.

31. Wheelbarrow (1170s)
The wheelbarrow proved useful in building construction, mining operations, and agriculture.

32. Ship mill (6th century)
The ship mill is a Byzantine invention, designed to mill grains using hydraulic power. The
technology eventually spread to the rest of Europe and was in use until ca. 1800
Vertical windmills (1180s)
Invented in Europe as the pivotable post mill, the first surviving mention of one comes from
Yorkshire in England in 1185

33. Spectacles (1280s)
The first spectacles, invented in Florence, used convex lenses which were of help only to the
far-sighted. Concave lenses were not developed prior to the 15th century.