The Enlightenm

ent1550 - 1789

Scientific Revolution

The Enlightenment starts with the Scientific Revolution.

People started to question ideas that had been accepted as fact for hundreds of years.

… a new way of thinking

Based on observation.

A willingness to question accepted beliefs.

Started in Renaissance

The old way of thinking believed…

All knowledge comes from..

The Catholic Church and the Bible were the source of what was true and false in the world.

Also….. Ancient Greek & Roman philosophers, such as Aristotle, said what was true about the natural world.

As long as it didn’t contradict the Bible.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a

thought without accepting it. - Aristotle

Ancient World

Most scholars believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system.

All planets moved in a perfect circle around the Earth.

The Sun rotated around the Earth.

Scientific Revolution

Was a new way of looking at the natural world.

Traditional ideas were found to be wrong through observation, experimenting and theories.

Muslim World

Muslim scholars had made great advances in science & math.

The Age of Exploration helped Europeans learn these advances, as well as in astronomy & physics.

Nicolaus Copernicus

In the early 1500’s, he studied planetary movement for 25 years.

Copernicus, a Polish cleric & astronomer believed the geocentric theory was wrong.

He proposed the

heliocentric theory

Heliocentric Theory

This theory states that Mr. Healy is the center of the solar system.

Copernicus studied planetary motion and disproved the geocentric theory.

He believed the heliocentric theory was true.

It states that the sun is the center solar systems.

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Heliocentric Theory

Heliocentric theory states that the sun is the center of the solar system.

Copernicus wrote a book called On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies.

He did not publish the book until he was on his death bed.

He feared persecution from the Church

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Persecution Copernicus knew

the Catholic Church could torture or execute him for his findings.

The Church used torture and murder to maintain power.

His book was published in 1543 as he was dying.

Johannes Kepler proved his theories mathematically.

Galileo Galilei In 1581, a 17 year old

boy proves that Aristotle's idea that planets move in a perfect circle was wrong.

He watched a chandelier in a Cathedral swing and questioned it’s motion.

He timed it’s movements & developed the Law of the Pendulum.

Each swing of the pendulum, no matter how far, took the same time.

Galileo Aristotle said that

heavy objects fall faster than lighter objects.

Galileo went to the top of the Tower of Pisa and dropped stones of different sizes.

He proved that all objects fall at the same speed no matter what their weight.

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Galileo Develop the

first practical telescope.

Discovered that Jupiter has four moons.

These theories contradicted the Church

The Church Galileo was in conflict with Church teachings.

He presented the ideas of Copernicus and his own theories.

He was put on trial by the Inquisition.

The Church

He was found guilty of heresy.

Under the threat of torture, he admitted that his ideas were wrong as were Copernicus’s.

He remained under house arrest for the rest of his life.

Scientific Method

Logical procedure of gathering information and testing ideas.

It starts with a problem arising from observation.

Next, a hypothesis or theory is formed.

From a hypothesis you experiment and draw a conclusion.

Descartes & Bacon

Rene Descartes developed analytical geometry.

Francis Bacon used math to prove theories of Galileo and Copernicus.

Isaac Newton

An English scientist develop a single theory of motion.

He supported Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo & Descartes ideas of motion.

Gravity

He disproved Aristotle's idea that one set of laws govern earth and another governs the heavens.

He published a book called “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.”

The universe id like a giant clock, all its parts dependent.