Causes of the Scientific Revolution
 Renaissance discovery of new classical manuscripts caused scholars to question accepted
knowledge
 Exploration broadens Europeans horizons
 Printing press spreads new ideas
 Discoveries of scientists challenged accepted thinking
New Ideas of the Universe – A heliocentric universe
 Copernicus:
proposed a new heliocentric universe Wrote On the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Bodies
 Brahe: used observation to record movements of the planets
 Kepler: used mathematics to prove Copernicus’s theory
 Galileo: law of the pendulum; falling objects, telescope
Wrote Starry Messenger – Jupiter had four moons; sun had dark spots, moon had rough and
uneven surface. Wrote Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which presented
the views of both Ptolemy and Copernicus. His support of Copernicus’ theory resulted in an
appearance before the Inquisition (forgiven in 1992!)
 Newton: Wrote Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Principia); gravity; God as a
clockmaker
The Scientific Method
 Francis Bacon: inductive reasoning; experimentation
 Rene Descartes: deductive reasoning: logic mathematics
Scientific Ideas and Discoveries
 Zacharias Janssen: microscope
 Anton van Leeuwenhoek: observed bacteria, red blood cells
 Evangelista Torricelli: mercury barometer
 Gabriel Fahrenheit: mercury thermometer in glass; freezing 32 degrees
 Anders Celsius: freezing 0 degrees
 Andreas Vesalius: dissected human corpses; wrote, On the Fabric of the Human Body
 William Harvey: wrote On the Motion of the Heart and Blood, which described the heart
acting as a pump to circulate blood through the body
 Edward Jenner: developed a safe smallpox vaccine using cowpox
 Robert Boyle: founder of modern chemistry; Boyle’s Law most famous contribution;
suggested that matter was made up of smaller primary particles joined in various ways
Wrote The Sceptical Chymist
 Joseph Priestley: Englishman who isolated oxygen from the air
 Antoine Lavoisier: Frenchman who separated oxygen and named it