Important Scientists Flashcards
Define the important scientists of the Scientific Revolution
Copernicus
He developed the heliocentric theory. He wrote a book in 1543 titled On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres which was written in the vernacular. (Polish) He made the calendar more accurate for the RCC which enabled them to predict religious holidays easier.
Ptolemy
Was a Greek philosopher around the year 200 AD. He backed up Aristotle’s ideas of a geocentric earth and was very similar to Aristotle
Aristotle
He was an ancient Greek philosopher in the 300s BC and proposed the geocentric theory where the earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around it. He also said the stars were crystals in the sky in a fixed position.
Benedetti
He found out that the more surface area there was, the slower an object would go. If you lessen the surface area, the object goes faster. Surface area impacts flight of objects. Centrifcal force was found out by him.
Brahe
He found a new star in the sky disproving Aristotle’s theory. He discovered the comet of 1577. He found out that the object was moving in a circular path. His assistant was Kepler.
Kepler
Was the assistant to Brahe before he died for 11 years. He interpreted Brahe’s data after his death. He discovered that planets were going at different speeds. He developed the 3 laws of planetary motion. When planets were positioned further away from the sun, they move slower than planets that were closer to the sun which moved faster due to gravitational pull. He also developed elliptical orbit, which means that planets move in oval shaped orbits.
Descartes
Created the (x,y) axis. He developed slope.
Newton
He put all of these ideas of all the previous scientists together. He found the Halley comet to return in 77 years. He is the founder of the law of gravity. Why planets orbit the sun in irregular orbits.
Galen
He was an ancient Greek biologist who thought the central blood system was in the liver. He was wrong about most of his predictions.
Francis Bacon
Developed the modern day 5 step Scientific Method and said that the only true way to gain knowledge was through experimentation and observation.
Vesalius
He was a leading anatomist in the 1500’s who developed the most detailed drawings of the human body. He dissected deceased bodies of criminals who were executed.
Boyle
He was often called the father of modern chemistry. He wrote a book in 1661 called The Sceptical Chemist that described matter as a cluster of tiny particles and said that matter was changed when the atoms were rearranged. He developed Boyle’s Law, which described how temperature, volume, and pressure affected gas.
Harvey
Described the heart as the central blood system and drew diagrams of how the heart worked.
Celsius
Is a unit of measurement developed by a scientist in the Scientific Revolution.
Fahrenheit
Another scientist who developed a different unit of measurement during the Scientific Revolution.
Tartaglia
He found out that cannonballs don’t fall perpendicularly to the ground. He was interested in why the flight of the cannonball was curving down. One of his theories was air resistance. He figured out water displacement and surface area.
Geocentric Theory
The theory developed by Aristotle that states that the earth is the center of the universe and that everything revolves around the earth.
Heliocentric Theory
The theory that the sun is the center of the solar system and that the earth and all the other planets revolve around the sun in elliptical orbits.
Starry Messenger
A book published that was a 24 pg book with many pictures and simple terms describing the heliocentric theory and other findings of Galileo that went against the church.
Scientific Method
Developed by Francis Bacon in 1620.
Laws of Planetary Motion
Developed by Kepler stating that one: Planets’ orbits are slower away from the sun since there is a lack of gravitational pull and faster when it is closer to the sun due to a higher gravitational pull. Also that the planets orbit in elliptical orbit which means the orbits are not circular.
Law of Gravity
Developed by Issac Newton. Helped explain why objects orbited the sun in ellipses. He wrote a Great Book Calle THe Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy also known as the Prinicpia.
On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres
Published by Nicholas Copernicus in 1453.
Leeuwenhoek
In the 1600’s he developed a microscope that allowed him to look a plant cells, red blood cells, bacteria, yeast, and other microorganisms.
