Introduction to the Scientific Revolution

1. The Scientific Revolution

2. What is a ‘revolution’?
• According to the dictionary, a
revolution is
“a dramatic and wide-reaching
change in the way something
works or in the people’s ideas
about it”

3. Causes of the Scientific
Revolution
1. When people traded around the world, they brought new
ideas and new items back to Europe.
2. In the Middle Ages, universities started to study ancient
science.
3. The Renaissance brought more interest in math and the
human body.
4. Humanism made people believe that man can
accomplish anything!
5. The Reformation made people less religious.

4. Nicolaus Copernicus
• Before Copernicus, people
believed in the ‘geocentric
model’ of the universe.
• After Copernicus, people
learned about the ‘heliocentric
model’.
Look to the next slide for pictures
of these models!

6. Galileo Galilei
• Invented the telescope!
• The telescope helped Galileo
observe the planets and he
decided that Copernicus was right
– the sun is at the center of the
universe!
• The Catholic Church didn’t like
Galileo’s ideas – it went against
what they believed.
• They put him under house arrest –
he couldn’t leave!

7. Isaac Newton
• Discovered the law of
gravitation – gravity!
• Gravity is the force that pulls
us down to the Earth and
keeps us from floating away!
• In space, there is no gravity.
• Newton also studied
light, movement, and space.