Science in the Dark Ages
The world is still largely undiscovered.
People in one country or continent know
little or nothing about people or ideas
elsewhere. Much of the flourishing of
scientific thought is taking place in China
and what is now known as the Middle East.
One Possible Waveform
Oops …
The
Barbarian
Hole
Algebra circa 800
Muslim Spain becomes one
of the principal centers of
learning and discussion in all
of Europe. This activity was
mostly located in Cordoba.
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi 1201-1274
Most significant alteration of Ptolemy
model – replaced epicycles with complex
nesting of circles
 Copernicus knows about this work
 But fails to improve the accuracy of
prediction of planetary positions

More Highlights




About 1000, Ibn al-Haitam, or al-Hazen, in
Opticae Thesaurus, introduced the idea that
light rays emanate in straight lines in all
directions from every point on a luminous
surface.
1079: Omar Khayyam, computed the length of
the year as 365.24219858156 days
1086: Shen Kua, a Chinese scientist, writes his
Dream Pool Essays in 1086. In these he outlines
the principles of erosion, sedimentation and
uplift
1088 (approximate).The University of Bologna is
founded
New Methodologies
In 1267 and 1268, Roger Bacon published
proposals for educational reform, arguing
for the study of nature, using observation
and exact measurement, and asserting
that the only basis for certainty is
experience, or verification
 “Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not
make the conclusion certain, unless the
mind discovers it by the path of experience”
 What would Aristotle say to this?

Towards Real Science
In 1328 or earlier, Ockham, in Summa Logicae,
wrote that universals exist only in men's minds
and in language, disputing the Aristotelian
principle that such things as the final cause were
self-evident or necessary. In other words, facts
could only be correlated, not caused. Ockham's
razor:
‘What can be done with fewer assumptions is done in
vain with more’.


Does this represent a Bias?
The Mertonians: Mean Speed Theorem – 1330s
 The law states that a body travelling at
constant velocity will cover the same distance
in the same time as an accelerated body if its
velocity is half the final speed of the
accelerated body.
 D = vt; v = at; d=at2
 d = ½ at2
Experimentally determined by
Galileo
Nicole Oresme
Circa 1350-1360 (University of Paris)
Probably the first example of what we would
consider as a modern scientist – proved the mean
speed theorem
Paris master and bishop of Lisieux who reformulated
Aristotle's doctrine of natural place in a way that
allowed for the possibility of other worlds. He taught
that the doctrine was valid providing only that heavy
bodies were located more centrally than light ones.
Since there could be many centers, there could, in
principle, be many different systems of worlds
Oresme Continued
Associated the idea of continuous change with a
coordinate system (long before Descartes)
Gave credible opposition to the idea of an unmoving
Earth:
“if a man in the heavens, moved and carried
along by their daily motion, could see the
earth distinctly..., it would appear to him that
the earth is moving in daily rotation"