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4/29/2011 HAARLEMMERMEER LYCEUM HOW A SMALL SCIENTIFIC SPARK GREW DURING THE RENAISSANCE Changes by Ptolemaeus, Copernicus, Kepler, Brahe, and Galileo | Melanie de Gier 2L How physics changed during the renaissance middle Ages In the middle ages people were authorized by the Church. The Church adopted the motion of the Greeks, which meant that they thought the Earth was the centre of the Universe. If anyone would not accept this, they would be killed by Supervisors, who were spies. And gaining knowledge was considered to be a passive process of merely having faith in the alleged wisdom of others. From Ptolemaeus life we don’t know much. But he was more common as Ptolomy. However, he is known for three scholar works, they all have to do with Geography, Astronomy and Geometry. Ptolomy made the first steps in understanding our Universe. The model of the solar system developed by Ptolemy (87 - 150 A.D.) was a refinement of Aristotle's (384 - 322 B.C.) universe. This model consisted of a series of concentric spheres, with the Earth at the center (geocentric). The motions of the Sun, Moon, and stars were based on perfect circles. To account for the observed retrograde motion of the planets, it was necessary to resort to a system of epicycles, whereby the planets moved around small circular paths that in turn moved around larger circular orbits around the Earth. This accounts for retrograde motion. By this and when the end of the middle Ages came, kings get wealthier and the Church is in their way. Copernicus was a Polish astronomer and mathematician who was a proponent of the view of an Earth in daily motion about its axis and in yearly motion around a stationary sun. This theory profoundly altered later workers' view of the universe, but was rejected by the Catholic Church. He was born in 1550, and on his deathbed he wrote a book: “On the revolution of heavenly bodies.” He found out the Earth was rotating around the Sun. This is called the heliocentric system. But when he stated this, he still had several questions he couldn't answer. Hundred years later everything changed, people were scared of the church because there was an inquisition: The military police of the Church who were torturing mankind. And there was an Index: It was a list with forbidden books, which were in fact the good books because the Church hated them. It was like a blacklist. Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician and astronomer who discovered that the Earth and planets travel about the sun in elliptical orbits. He gave three fundamental laws of planetary motion. He also did important work in optics and geometry. Kepler was in the lowest side of society, but even though, he was a master mathematical genius. Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer who is best known for the astronomical observations which led Kepler to his theories of the Solar system. He was a noble man and lost his nose, which was replaced by a golden nose. He found Nova Stella, and the Danish king built an observatory for him in Uranium burg, to break the power of the Church. And he had a model: The Earth rotates around the Sun, the rest of the planets rotate around the Melanie de Gier earth. They had huge differences in character, and Johannes Kepler and Ticho Brahe did not work together. Ticho Brahe feared Kepler would steal his ideas so he only showed him half of his voluminous data. Later, Ticho Brahe died first and Kepler got his data, with which he worked for 29 years until he died too. But during this period of time he formulated his three laws of Planetary Motion: Kepler’s first law: The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse. Kepler’s second law: The line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times as the planet travels around the ellipse. Kepler’s third law: The ratio of the squares of the revolutionary periods for two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their semi major axes: In this equation P represents the period of revolution for a planet and R represents the length of its semi major axis. The subscripts "1" and "2" distinguish quantities for planet 1 and 2 respectively. The periods for the two planets are assumed to be in the same time units and the lengths of the semi major axes for the two planets are assumed to be in the same distance units. 12 years after the death of Kepler, Galileo Galilei was born. Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist who formulated the basic law of falling bodies, which he verified by careful measurements. He constructed a telescope with which he studied lunar craters, and discovered four moons revolving around Jupiter and espoused the Copernican cause. Galileo’s telescope was made of one smaller strong lens, and one bigger less strong lens. This type of telescope was first used for seeing enemies from far away, but it was originally Dutch. With it, Galileo was able to see the four major moons of Jupiter (now called the Galilean Satellites in his honour, but he called them the “Medician Sarts”). Besides these, which rank among the most important of his observations, Galileo drew detailed diagrams of Earth's moon, observing valleys and mountains and craters. He also looked at the sun and observed dark blemishes on its surface, which are now called sunspots. From the movement of these, he was able to determine that the sun has a rotation period of about one month. He published a book on these observations of celestial bodies, and it was called Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger). Galileo liked the ideas of Copernicus, but he had some critics: Why don’t we notice the fast movement; how can we walk on the ground etc. He tested the laws of falling bodies, and motion. And he came to these conclusions: Melanie de Gier Law of falling bodies: If two objects falling at the same time, they will reach the ground at the same moment, and the weight difference does not matter. This is defined by: {This law he got out of the law of Inertia, which he defined earlier.} Law of Motion: An object that is in motion will not change its velocity unless an unbalanced force acts upon it. He also had a principle: All bodies fall with the same acceleration, regardless of its mass and its composition. The motion of any body depends only on the event and its initial velocity when it was released. And from that he made the law of Gravitation: Heavy objects fall as fast as light objects. This law was worked out later by Newton and Einstein, who both used this law as an example. But Galileo also used ideas of Archimedes, e.g. his law of lever and the balance of torques were both second nature to him. The observations of Heavens When in 1604 a new star(nova) appeared, Galileo took his chance to support the Copernican theory instead of Aristotle’s after doing observation on the ‘new’ star. This appearance led to Galileo’s interest in Astronomy. He improved the Telescope in 1609, so he had a powerful tool to observe heavens. With the telescope, Galileo discovered mountains and valleys on the moon in 1610. He also discovered the Moons of Jupiter, and the sun spots, as well as many stars. In the same year, Galileo became court philosopher and mathematician of the Medici Family, the dukes of Toscany- who offered him a good salary. In 1616, he met inquisition officials who forbade him to support the Copernicus theory, because it was against the Church. Galileo did publish a book after their visit called the Dialogue. However, it wasn’t so successful, the Church was very quick and the book was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books and Galileo was taken to Rome to stand trial before the Inquisition. He was sentenced to home imprisonment, although it didn’t stop him. He continued his scientific activities and published an important book: Discourse on Two New Sciences, in which he summarized all his ideas. The book was smuggled out of Italy and was distributed throughout Europe. In 1638, Galileo became completely blind. A lot of people think this was because of his observations of the sunspots, but these were always done during sunset, and weren’t dangerous for his eyes. In fact he was blinded by cataracts and glaucoma, when he was 72-74 years old. He continued his activities though, and he was helped be students, whom he dedicated his letters. In 1642 Galileo past away, but he left a big help for our world. All the scientific thinkers have contributed to the world of today. Whether they had wrong or right ideas, these could and should be remembered and improved. After Galileo, Newton and Einstein helped the world by their wonderful ideas. But to summarize them one by one: Melanie de Gier “By this I would like thank these heroes’s in science. They helped us understand the universe, and they had wonderful ideas. I think there still a lot to learn for us on the world. This essay helped me to understand some difficult thinking were people gave their life for”-Melanie de Gier Resources: http://www.lasalle.edu/~smithsc/Astronomy/retrograd.html http://filer.case.edu/~sjr16/advanced/pre20th_europe.html http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/kepler.html http://library.thinkquest.org/11924/galileo.html http://muse.tau.ac.il/museum/galileo/galileo_low_of_fall.html http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/mpeterso/galileo/scaling8.pdf http://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/modules/LIGHTCONE/newton-gr.html http://muse.tau.ac.il/museum/galileo/galileo.html http://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/rees/202/00general/high.pdf http://www.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://202.38.70.95/ocw/NR/rdonlyres/Global/0/041C741B-D653-465EB6178B7CA42655FA/0/chp_collage_gal_pto.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ssrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/aripley/PreIBHISTORY/Scienti ficRevolutionEnlightenment/ScientificRevolutionProject.doc&usg=__gBN7K1yiapta45Bqt6cyq0lGNds=&h=350&w= 420&sz=38&hl=nl&start=0&sig2=p8ViJpzDaeKg1jZyKHwHvA&zoom=1&tbnid=FDwBMzhvkWO9AM:&tbnh=134&t bnw=169&ei=1IK5TaywMYSUOq3c8ZIP&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpicture%2Bcollage%2Bptolemaeus,%2Bcopernicus ,%2Bkepler,%2Bbrahe,%2Band%2Bgalileo%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dnl%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D13 66%26bih%3D667%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=130&vpy=75&dur=523&hovh=205&hovw=246&t x=147&ty=81&page=1&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0 Melanie de Gier