Download Scientific Revolution

The Scientific Revolution
A New View of the World
7.10.1
The Big Idea
Europeans drew on earlier ideas to develop a new way of gaining knowledge
about the natural world.
Main Ideas
• The Scientific Revolution marked the birth of modern science.
• The roots of the Scientific Revolution can be traced to ancient Greece,
the Muslim world, and Europe.
Main Idea 1:
The Scientific Revolution marked the
birth of modern science.
The series of events that led to the birth of modern science is called the
Scientific Revolution.
The Birth of Modern Science
• Science was a completely different way of looking at the world.
• Science starts with observations, and then scientists begin to identify the
facts.
• The explanations that scientists develop based on the facts are called
theories.
• Scientists design experiments to prove their theories.
Main Idea 2:
The roots of the Scientific Revolution
can be traced to ancient Greece,
the Muslim world, and Europe.
• Some of the ideas of science had been expressed long before the
Scientific Revolution.
• Some of the basic ideas of science are ancient.
• Greek philosophers argued that people should observe the world
carefully and draw logical conclusions.
• Greek thinkers such as Aristotle and Ptolemy were rationalists.
Europeans studied their work and also began to view the world in a
rational way, thinking like scientists.
Roots of the Revolution
• Greek thinkers such as Aristotle wrote about astronomy, geography, and many
other fields.
• Aristotle’s greatest contribution was the idea that people should observe the
world carefully and make logical, reasonable conclusions.
• Ptolemy was another Greek thinker who believed in observations of the real
world.
• These types of thinkers were known as rationalists, people who looked at the
world in a rational, or reasonable and logical, way.
• European scholars could study Greek writing because Muslim scholars had
translated it from Greek to Arabic. It was then translated into Latin, which was
read in Europe.
Discoveries and Inventions
7.10.2
The Big Idea
During the Scientific Revolution, new ideas and inventions changed the
nature of knowledge.
Main Ideas
• The discovery of the Americas led scholars to doubt the ancient Greek
ideas.
• Advances in astronomy were key events of the Scientific Revolution.
• Sir Isaac Newton developed laws that explained much of the natural
world.
• New inventions helped scientists study the natural world.
Main Idea 1:
The discovery of the Americas led scholars to doubt ancient
Greek ideas.
The ancient Greeks had been the authority on many things, including
geography, but the discovery of the Americas made Europeans begin to
doubt the Greeks.
The Discovery of the Americas
• Christopher Columbus set out to sail to Asia using a map created by the
ancient Greek Ptolemy.
• Columbus reached North America before he reached Asia.
• This proved that the ancient Greek authorities were incorrect.
• This led other people to question the theories of the ancient Greeks.
Main Idea 2:
Advances in astronomy were key events of the Scientific
Revolution.
• In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published a book that contradicted what the Greek
authorities had written. Many historians believe that this book marked the
beginning of the Scientific Revolution.
– The Greeks believed the earth was at the center of the universe.
– Copernicus said the planets orbited the sun.
• Tycho Brahe charted the positions of hundreds of stars, using careful observation
and detailed recordings.
• Johannes Kepler observed that planets moved in oval orbits, not circular ones.
• Galileo Galilei was the first person to study the sky with a telescope. He used
experiments to test his theories.
Main Idea 3:
Sir Isaac Newton developed laws that explained much of the
natural world.
The high point of the Scientific Revolution was marked by the publication of
a book by a very famous scientist, Sir Isaac Newton.
Sir Isaac Newton
• Sir Isaac Newton was a British scientist, who wrote the book Principia
Mathematica.
• Newton studied and simplified the work of earlier scientists. He coupled
it with his own observations and identified four theories that prove how
the world works.
• Some of the theories have been proved so many times that they are now
called laws.
• One of Newton’s laws is called the law of gravity. The other three are
called the laws of motion.
• Newton also invented calculus, a branch of mathematics.
Main Idea 4:
New inventions helped scientists study the natural world.
During the Scientific Revolution, scientists invented instruments that helped
them study the natural world.
New Inventions
• A Dutch scientist developed the simple microscope.
• Galileo invented the first thermometer and built a much-improved
telescope.
• The barometer was invented to measure air pressure. Barometers are
used to help forecast the weather.
• These inventions gave scientists the tools they needed to make more
accurate observations and to conduct experiments.
Science and Society
7.10.3
The Big Idea
The Scientific Revolution led to the establishment of science as a method of
learning, new ideas about government, and conflict with religious
authorities.
Main Ideas
• The ideas of Francis Bacon and René Descartes helped to clarify the
scientific method.
• Science influenced new ideas about government.
• Science and religion developed a sometimes uneasy relationship.
Main Idea 1:
The ideas of Francis Bacon and René Descartes helped to clarify
the scientific method.
• The Scientific Revolution led to a dramatic change in the ways people
learned about the world. The new, scientific way of gaining knowledge
had far-reaching effects.
• The scientific method combined ideas from Bacon and Descartes. It is a
step-by-step method for performing experiments and other scientific
research.
Francis Bacon and René Descartes
• Francis Bacon was an English philosopher who read the works of the
great scientists of the Scientific Revolution.
• He argued that science could be pursued in a systematic fashion.
• He published his ideas in his book The Advancement of Learning.
• René Descartes was a French philosopher who made great contributions
to the establishment of science.
• He believed that nothing should be accepted until it is proven true.
The Six Basic Steps of the Scientific Method
The scientific method combines Bacon’s idea of a systematic
scientific process, Descartes’s insistence on proof and clear
reasoning, and the work of other scientists.
• Stating the problem
• Gathering information
• Forming a hypothesis, a solution that the scientist proposes to solve the
problem
• Testing the hypothesis by performing experiments
• Recording and analyzing data gathered from the experiments
• Drawing conclusions from the data collected
Main Idea 2:
Science influenced new ideas about government.
Some of the important effects of the Scientific Revolution had nothing to do
with science at all.
Science and Government
• The Scientific Revolution taught people that human reason or logical
thought was a powerful tool.
• The use of reason to consider the problems of society led philosophers
to look at ways to improve society.
• The idea that all things in nature were equal led people to believe that
since all laws in society were equal, everyone in society should be equal
as well.
• This sense of equality led to the introduction of more democratic ideas
for government.
Main Idea 3:
Science and religion developed a sometimes uneasy
relationship.
The Roman Catholic Church was a powerful force in Europe during the time
of the Scientific Revolution. The birth and growth of science led to conflicts
between scientists and the church.
Conflicts between scientists and the church.
The new field of science was putting forth ideas that conflicted
with the teachings of the church.
One such theory was that the earth revolved around the sun,
not that the sun revolved around the earth, as the church
taught.
Church officials believed that when scientific theories
contradicted the church, they weakened the church.
The church feared that people might start to doubt the key
elements of their faith.