The scientific revolution began in the 16th century as scholars started challenging ancient authorities and religious doctrines. New tools like the telescope and microscope enabled more precise observations, while advances in math provided ways to analyze data. Copernicus and Kepler proposed models of the solar system contradicting the geocentric Ptolemaic system. Galileo's telescope observations further disproved Ptolemy, though the Church condemned his findings. Newton later defined gravity and laws of motion unifying earlier ideas. Despite some contributions from women, the new empirical and reason-based scientific approach became dominated by male thinkers like Descartes, who separated body from mind, and Bacon, who advocated using science to understand and control nature.

1. THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

2. Causes of the Scientific Revolution
• Before 1500, scholars decided what was
true or false by referring to ancient
authorities or to the Bible
• The Renaissance’s rebirth in learning
inspired curiosity in many fields
• Reformation prompted followers to
challenge accepted ways of thinking about
God
• By the mid-1500s, scholars begin to
challenge the ideas of ancient thinkers and
the church
• Scientific Revolution was based upon
careful observation of the world and a
willingness to challenge accepted beliefs

3. Causes of the Scientific Revolution
• New inventions made careful observations and
accurate measurements possible
– Telescope, microscope, printing press, chronometer
• Mathematics played a key role in the
achievements during the 1600-1700s
– Francois Viete – used letters to represent unknown
quantities and laid the foundation for trigonometry
– Simon Stevin – introduced the decimal system
– John Napier – invented a table of logarithms, making
calculations much easier
• Ancient mathematicians believed the secrets of
nature were written in the language of math
– the rediscovery of their works made proving abstract
theories with clear logical evidence (algebra,
geometry, trigonometry) much easier.

4. Ptolemaic System
• An early challenge to accepted scientific
thought came in the field of astronomy
• Ptolemy (100s), the greatest ancient
astronomer, in addition to Aristotle and
Christianity, constructed the universe in
a geocentric model (Ptolemaic System).
– Is a series of concentric circles where the
heavenly bodies are embedded in crystal-
like, transparent spheres.
– The moon is embedded in the first sphere,
Mercury the second, Venus the third, and the
Sun in the fourth.
– The tenth sphere is the “prime mover” that
gives motion to the other spheres.
– Beyond the prime mover is Heaven and God
• God at one end and humans at the center.

5. Ptolemaic System

6. Copernicus and Kepler
• 1543: mathematician Nicolaus
Copernicus publishes a heliocentric
conception of the universe
– His theory still did not completely
explain how or why the planets orbit
• German Johannes Kepler used
astronomical data to arrive at laws
of planetary motion
– Discovered elliptical orbits, which
contradicted the Ptolemaic System
– Confirmed the heliocentric view of
Copernicus using mathematical data

7. Galileo’s Discoveries
• Galileo Galilei: mathematician was
the first European to make regular
observations using the telescope
– Mountains on Earth’s moon, four
moons around Jupiter, and sunspots
– 1610 – Published The Starry
Messenger
• His observations continued to
destroy the Ptolemaic system
• Ordered by the Church to abandon
the Copernican idea
– Threatened the Church’s view of the
universe with humans not center and
no scientific God

8. Newton’s View of the Universe
• Newton’s ideas would tie together those
of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo.
• Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge
University
• Wrote Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy (Principia)
• Defined three laws of motion and universal
law of gravitation
– States in mathematical terms that objects in the
universe are attracted to every other objet by
gravity
– His laws could explain all motion in the universe

9. Women’s Contributions
• Margaret Cavendish
– English aristocrat who was homeschooled, she
studied “suitable” subjects (music, dance,
needlepoint)
– Wrote on a number of scientific matters
• Question the belief of humans, through science, as
masters of the universe
– Published under her own name, but not taken
seriously at the time
• Maria Winklemann
– German astronomer who married Prussia’s
foremost astronomer – as his assistant she made
some original discoveries such as a comet
– Denied a position as assistant astronomer at
Berlin Academy
– “Mouths would gape” if the Academy hired a
woman scientist

10. Descartes and Reason
• Thought and wrote about doubt and reason
that seemed everywhere during the 1600s
• His philosophy would dominate western
thought until the 20th Century
• Only accepted those things that his reason
said were true
– “I think, therefore I am”
• “The mind cannot be doubted but the body
and material world can, the two must be
radically different.”
– Separation of mind and matter allowed scientists
to view matter as inert and thus could be
independently investigated through reasoning.
• He established that reason is the chief
source of knowledge

11. Bacon and the Scientific Method
• To understand the physical world, the
scientific method was created
– Systematic procedure for collecting and
analyzing evidence
• Francis Bacon believed in using reason to
learn about nature – not ancient authorities
• “the true and lawful goal of the sciences is
none other than this: that human life be
endowed with new discoveries and power”
• He wanted science to benefit industry,
agriculture and trade
• Bacon believed humans could “conquer
nature”