Scientific Revolution

Heliocentric

Nicolaus Copernicus made a heliocentric model of the universe meaning a "sun-centered" view. Copernicus said that the sun stood at the center of the universe and that the Earth was just one of the several planets that revolved around the sun. Many experts at the time rejected this theory, but later, Tycho Bahe provided evidence that supported Copernicus's revolutionary theory. Other experts and Copernicus agreed that the planets did not revolve around the sun in a perfect circle, but rather an oval-shaped orbit called an ellipse.

Rene Descartes

A Frenchman that, along with Bacon, rejected Aristotle's scientific assumptions as well as challenging the scholarly traditions of the medieval universities that made science agree with what the Church believed. He emphasized human reasoning as the best road to understanding. In his Discourse on Method, he explains how he decided to discard all traditional authorities and search for provable knowledge.

Nicolaus Copernicus

A Polish scholar who published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543. In this book he proposed his heliocentric model of the universe which received a lot of controversy, but was later proven right by other scientists.

Gravity

A force that keeps the planets in their orbits around the sun. Isaac Newton discovered this force using mathematics. In 1687, Newton published Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in which he explained the law of gravity as well as other workings of the universe.

Hypothesis

A possible explanation proposed using logic and data collected from experiments.

Isaac Newton

A scientist who at the age of 24 formed a brilliant theory to explain why the planets moved as they did. Over the next 20 years of his life he spent his time perfecting this theory and using math he showed that a single force keeps the planets in their orbits around the sun: gravity.

Johannes Kepler

A brilliant German astronomer and mathematician who used Brahe's data, found from an astronomical observatory, to calculate the orbits of the planets revolving around the sun. His calculations matched Copernicius's heliocentric view of the universe.

Francis Bacon

An Englishman that, along with Descartes, rejected Aristotle's scientific assumptions as well as challenging scholarly traditions of the medieval universities. Bacon stressed experimentation and observation. He wanted science to make life better for people by leading to practical technologies.

Galileo Galilei

In Italy, he assembled an astronomical telescope and discovered, just as Copernicus did, that the Earth does revolve around the sun. His discovery caused an uproar because his views contradicted ancient views and the Church condemned him because his ideas challenged Christian teachings. In 1633, Galileo was tried in front of the Inquisition and was forced to say that his findings were false.

Robert Boyle

In the 1600's, he distinguished between individual elements and chemical compounds. He also explained the effect of temperature and pressure on gases.

Scientific Method

The process of experimenting a hypothesis a number of times to confirm a scientist's findings.