Astronomy+and+the+Scientific+Revolution

= = =__ASTRONOMY AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION__=
 * Done by Heather Chong (10), Isdiyanah Puteri (11), Nicolette Lee (15), Ma Cheng Yu (18), Sarah Mok (21), Ong Qiu Hui (23)**

__(This is in order of what they contributed) __ 384-322 BC Born in Greece He was a student of Plato and the teacher of Alexander the great Sometimes called grandfather of science He believed in a geocentric universe (earth@ the center) Thought that the movements of the planets and stars were perfectly circular so they could go on circling forever Born AD 90 in Egypt Died AD 168 in Alexandria, Egypt He believed that the Earth was a sphere, and that the Earth was at the center of the Universe and the planets and the sun would orbit around the Earth (later proven incorrect) He was able to predict positions of the planets accurately enough for naked-eye observations Wrote //Tetrabiblos //, a work on Astronomy  In the end both ancient scientists/observers were proved wrong but they still played an important role in the world. His work had generated most of the discussion, which evolved to the heliocentric idea in the end.
 * __ARISTOTLE __**
 * __CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS __**


 * __NICOLAUS COPERNICUS __**



A Polish mathematician and an astronomer, he was sent off to Cracow University, there to study mathematics and optics; at Bologna, canon law. Returning from his studies in Italy, Copernicus, through the influence of his uncle, was appointed as a canon in the cathedral of Frauenburg where he spent a sheltered and academic life for the rest of his days. Because of his clerical position, Copernicus moved in the highest circles of power; but a student he remained. He had a keen interest in astrology, and his investigations were carried on quietly and alone, without help or consultation. 
 * Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) **
 * Biography: **

He eventually proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it, which described the universe as “heliocentric”, as compared to the “geocentric” model, whereby the Earth was stationary in the center of the universe and the other planets and sun revolve around it. At the time Copernicus's heliocentric idea was very controversial as the teachings of the bible said that the universe was geocentric. Because Copernicus was afraid that his theory would be opposed by the church as it went against the teachings of the bible, his book, //De revolutionibus orbium coelestium // (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) was not published until before his death is 1543. Nevertheless, it was the start of a change in the way the world was viewed, and **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Copernicus came to be seen as the initiator of the Scientific Revolution **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">.
 * Change of theory:**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Disturbed by the failure of Ptolemy's geocentric model of the universe **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> to follow Aristotle's requirement for the uniform circular motion of all celestial bodies and determined to eliminate Ptolemy's equant, an imaginary point around which the bodies seemed to follow that requirement, Copernicus decided that he could achieve his goal only through a heliocentric model. He thereby created a concept of a universe in which the distances of the planets from the sun bore a direct relationship to the size of their orbits. For example, Mercury, which completes a revolution around the Sun every 88 days, would fall closest to it.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Original name: Tyge Brahe DOB: 14 Dec 1546 Died on: 24 Oct 1601 <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Adopted the Latinized name "Tycho Brahe" at the age of 15. __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Contributions __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 1. proved that comets are not objects in the atmosphere 2. showed irregularities in the moons orbit 3. His wall quadrant and other instrument became widely copied and lead to improved stellar instruments. 4. Kepler used Tycho Brahe's observations when he constructed his famous laws of planetary movement. 11 Nov 1572, evening - Tycho Brahe for the 1st time sees a new star (now named SN 1572) in the constellation Cassiopeia on his way home. He observes it carefully, and published a small book, //De nova stella// in 1573 and becomes known as a respected astronomer. He proposed that the five known planets revolved around the sun, which, along with those planets, revolved around the earth each year. The stars, then, revolved around the Earth, which was immobile. <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Tycho Brahe’s theories were incorrect, but the data he collected during his lifetime was far superior to any others made prior to the invention of the telescope <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">After Tycho Brahe’s death, his assistant, <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Johannes Kepler used Tycho Brahe’s observations to calculate his own three laws of planetary motion. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> > <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Detect and <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">correct several grave errors in the standard astronomical tables. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> > <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Discovered the Variation of the Moon's longitude which contributed to the <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">lunar theory <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">. > <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">contributed to <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">medicine <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">: his herbal medicines were in use as late as the 1900s > <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Designed and built new instruments <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">, calibrated them and checked their accuracy periodically. He thus <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">revolutionized astronomical instrumentation <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">. He also changed observational practice profoundly. Whereas earlier astronomers had been content to observe the positions of planets and the Moon at certain important points of their orbits (e.g., opposition, quadrature, station), Tycho and his cast of assistants observed these bodies throughout their orbits. As a result, a number of orbital anomalies never before noticed were made explicit by Tycho. Without these complete series of observations of unprecedented accuracy, Kepler could not have discovered that planets move in elliptical orbits. Tycho was also the <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">first astronomer to make corrections for atmospheric refraction <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">. In general, whereas previous astronomers made observations accurate to perhaps 15 arc minutes, those of Tycho were accurate to perhaps 2 arc minutes, and it has been shown that his best observations were accurate to about half an arc minute.
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 24pt;">TYCHO BRAHE __**


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 24pt;">JOHANNES KEPLER __**

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">A German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution. He is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers based on his works //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Astronomia nova //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">, //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Harmonices Mundi //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">, and //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Epitome of Copernican Astronomy //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">. They also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation. During his career, Kepler was an assistant to astronomer Tycho Brahe. He also did fundamental work in the field of optics, invented an improved version of the refracting telescope (the Keplerian Telescope), and helped to legitimize the telescopic discoveries of his contemporary Galileo Galilei. Kepler used and improved Copernicus theories of heliocentric and he tried to prove it through observations. He was deemed the champion of observational science. His theory was that the earth did not move around the sun in perfect circles but rather in ellipsis. He had also hypothesized that the earth spun on an axis while rotating around the earth. He also calculated that the planets had different velocities. The planets sped up as the move pass the sun while slowing down when they were further away. Also, the nearer the planets to the sun, the faster the planet moves and vice versa. Through his research, Kepler was able to give the world a better picture of a heliocentric universe and he also paved the way for Galileo.
 * Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630)**
 * Biography:**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Contribution: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 24pt;">GALILEO GALILEI __**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Galileo Galilei ** **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">(15th February 1564 – 8th January 1642) ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">

He was an Italian Mathematician and a natural philosopher. One of Galileo's most famous "inventions" was his confirmation that the sun is the center of our solar system, a theory first put forward by Nicolaus Copernicus. Galileo confirmed the theory partly through his observation of the phases of the planet Venus as it reflected light from the sun while orbiting the star. In 1600, he began working on one of his life’s great scientific passions, the problem of motion of objects on a moving Earth. Although Dutchman Hans Lippershey invented the telescope in 1608, Galileo built his own in 1609, without ever having seen Lippershey's, and he improved it over time from 3X magnification to about 30X. He built his first telescope based on descriptions he had heard. He was the first to use a telescope to observe the heavens. He made telescopic observations of the moons of Jupiter, using this observation to argue in favor of the heliocentric, Copernican theory of the universe against the dominant geocentric Ptolemaic and Aristotelian theories. In 1620, Galileo drafted a “ dialogue ”, a debate between supporters of the old and new sciences. Galileo had built on both, Copernicus’ and Kepler’s theories in which he proved right through evidences. Galileo was known as the //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Father of Modern Science //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> because he had made use of advance technology and made theories from his findings, causing him to find out more about the universe. The Catholic Church welcomed Galileo’s findings because he had evidence to proof the theories. Galileo saw, proved and revealed about astronomy. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The period of Scientific Revolution saw a fundamental transformation in scientific ideas across physics, astronomy, and biology, in institutions supporting scientific investigation, and in the more widely held picture of the universe. Brilliant minds started to question all manners of things and it was this questioning that led to the scientific revolution, which in turn formed the foundations of all modern sciences. The scientific revolution led to the establishment of several modern sciences. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The scientific revolution was not marked by any single change. The following new ideas of astronomy contributed to what is called the scientific revolution: · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The replacement of the Earth by the Sun as the center of the solar system · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The replacement of the Aristotelian theory that matter was continuous and made up of the elements Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Aether by rival ideas that matter was atomistic or corpuscular or that its chemical composition was even more complex. · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The change of the fact that the planets moving from perfect circles to ellipsis. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> Therefore, astronomy has affected the Scientific Revolution. Without it, there will not be any beginning change to scientific revolution, which has opened the mind of the other scientists to go further in depth and look at different perspectives.
 * Biography:**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Contribution: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 24pt;">Conclusion: **

The most important scientist who had played a very important and major role in the beginning of the Scientific Revolution for Astronomy was Nicolaus Copernicus as he had opposed Ptolemy’s theory that was under control for more than 1000 years as he had doubt Ptolemy’s theory and had tried to prove it wrong. However, he was not very welcomed to show his findings. Nevertheless, we came to a conclusion that without Copernicus’ theory, the others like Kepler and Galilei would not have been able to build on that theory and changed the mindset of the people in the Middle Ages based on Astronomy to welcome the beginning of Scientific Revolution.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] http://www.ehow.com/facts_5491727_list-galileos-inventions.html History notes Mrs Mak Wai Ling
 * References: **