2. Objectives
❖ Students will explain how new discoveries in astronomy
changed the way people viewed the universe.
❖ Students will analyze the changes in European thought and
culture resulting from the Renaissance.
3. Vocabulary
❖ heliocentric: based on the belief that the sun is the center of the
universe.
❖ scientific method: careful, step-by-step process used to confirm
findings and confirm findings and to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
❖ hypothesis: an unproved theory accepted for the purposes of
explaining certain facts or to proved a basis for further
investigation.
❖ gravity: force that pulls objects in Earth's sphere to the center of
the Earth.
❖ calculus: a branch of mathematics in which calculations are made
using special symbolic notations; developed by Isaac Newton
4. Challenge to Conventional
Wisdom: Ptolemy
❖ Greek scientists and philosophers had influenced scientific
thought for over 1000 years
❖ Aristotle and Ptolemy - the earth was the center of the
universe
❖ Church supported this idea
❖ Renaissance and Reformation -
challenge to the church
❖ New challenges arise
5. Nicolaus Copernicus
❖ Polish scientist who proposed a new view of the
universe
❖ Earth orbited the Sun - not other way around;
heliocentric model
❖ Massively radical - if this were true, what other
assumptions about the world and the universe
were wrong?
❖ Tycho Brahe - provided evidence that supported
Copernicus’ finding
❖ Astronomical observatory - watched
movement of heavenly bodies
6. Galileo Galilei
❖ Italian scholar who assembled an astronomical telescope
❖ Observed moons of Jupiter; moved at different speed around
the planet
❖Proved that Copernicus’ observations were true; about the
Earth as well
❖ Uproar in the Christian world -
challenged idea that Earth was
‘perfect’ and center of the
universe
❖ Charged with heresy and
threatened with death to
change his views
7. Bacon and Descartes
❖ Examination of how truth is determined by
Francis Bacon and René Descartes
❖ Reject assumptions of Aristotle and wanted
to find a mechanism for how best to come to
truth
❖ Questions and search for answers to those
questions through systematic examination
of what is true and not true
❖ “I think, therefore I am”
8. Scientific Method
❖ Step-by-step process of discovery
❖ Collection of data and evidence that is measurable
❖ To explain data, form a hypothesis
❖ Test and retest these assumptions
❖ Use mathematical calculations to quantify information
and finally form an expression of understanding to
establish scientific laws
9. Isaac Newton
❖ Developed a theory to explain the way that
planets moved
❖ Used mathematics, demonstrated how a single
force keeps the planets in their orbits around
the sun - gravity
❖ Published a book explaining the law of gravity
and other workings of the universe
❖ Nature has rules and follows them
❖ All motion in the universe can be measured
and described through mathematics
❖ Newton developed calculus to be able to
do this
