Scientific Revolution Flashcards
Geocentrism
(380BCE) The idea that the Earth was in the center of the universe
Heliocentrism
(1543CE) The idea that the sun is in the middle of the solar system
Ptolemy
From Greece c. 150CE
Ptolemy was a rationalist, an astronomer, cartographer, and a geographer who made important advancements that even people in Europe during the 1500s used.
He made maps that were considered to be real for around 1500 years until Christopher Columbus told Western Europe about the Americas.
He believed in a geocentric model of the solar system.
Church liked his ideas because he said that the solar system was geocentric.
Aristotle
From Greece c. 150CE
Aristotle was an astronomer and rationalist who had many ideas and teachings that the Catholic Church agreed with.
He believed in a geocentric model of the solar system.
Church liked his ideas because he said that the solar system was geocentric.
St. Thomas Aquinas
From Italy 1225-1274
St. Thomas Aquinas tried to show how Aristotle’s ideas connected with Catholic ideas.
He said all living things had a soul.
Alchemists
From 1500s
They tried to turn objects into gold.
They were not successful, but they found out concepts that formed the basics of chemistry
The Catholic Church did not like them because they thought that they would lower the price of gold if they were successful
Nicolas Copernicus
From Poland 1543
He wrote the book “On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres”
He stated that the Earth was round and that the Earth revolved around the sun
The Catholic Church did not like him because they supported a geocentric solar system, while he supported a heliocentric solar system
Galileo Galilei
From Italy early 1600s
He was the first person to observe the night sky with a telescope and chart the skies.
He believed in heliocentrism.
The Catholic Church did not like him because they believed in geocentrism and he believed in heliocentrism, so their ideas clashed.
Zacharias Janssen
From the Netherlands 1590
He was a lensmaker who invented a prototype of the microscope and became the first to sell it
The Catholic Church did not like him because he made fake coins that were very similar to the original coins using the microscope and it would make him richer than them
Tycho Brahe
From Germany late 1500s
He spent his life studying the stars and charted the positions of over 750 stars.
He made detailed and accurate records of what he saw.
The Catholic Church did not like him because he believed in a heliocentric solar system, and the church believed in a geocentric solar system.
Johannes Kepler
From Germany 1609
He made “Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion”
He found out that the planets orbited in ellipses, not circles
The Catholic Church did not like him because they thought that ellipses were imperfect and God would never make his favorite creations imperfect
René Descartes
From France 1619
He said “I think, therefore I am”. This means that nothing really exists, but we just believe it exists, so it exists.
He figured out how to plot points on the graph with 4 quadrants. He used that to create analytical geometry.
The Catholic Church did not like him because they could not prove all of the things he came up with. They put his books on the forbidden list so people would not learn his ideas.
Francis Bacon
From UK 1620
He was part of the Anglican Church.
He put the scientific method together, which allowed scientists to think in an orderly, fashioned way that allowed them to make discoveries quicker and easier.
The Catholic Church did not like him because his ideas would allow more scientists to make more discoveries that the Catholic Church would not be able to prove wrong, which would destroy people’s faith in God
Scientific Method
- Ask a question
- Gather information to find the answer to the question
- Form a hypothesis (what you think will be the answer to the question)
- Perform experiments to prove the hypothesis
- Analyze the data from the experiments
- Make a conclusion (was your hypothesis correct? was it wrong? what is the correct answer?)
William Harvey
From England 1628
Even though he wasn’t allowed to dissect bodies, he came up with the idea of blood circulation.
The Catholic Church did not like him because he was not big on religion Additionally, they always thought that God made humans survive, so when they found out that something else helped humans survive, they thought that people would stop being Catholic.
