RevolutionKey Contributions To The Scientific Rev Essay

Revolution-Key Contributions To The Scientific Rev Essay, Research Paper

REVOLUTION-Key Contributions to the Scientific Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuriesThe Scientific Revolution brought about a change in the Western world. Prior to the 17th and 18th centuries, many Europeans strongly believed in the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic ideology of the physical world. When these ideas were replaced by Copernicus’s heliocentric theory in the 16th century, other scientists had the opportunity to offer their input on the complexity of the physical world surrounding them. Important methodology was necessary during the Scientific Revolution to make scientists’ sometimes absurd theories believable. One of the most profound methods used during the 17th and 18th centuries was the Scientific Method. This procedure was a logical and physical process consisting of four steps that led scientists to universal conclusions. Empirical evidence, or evidence based on concrete facts, was another method used by scientists of this era to prove their theories. Using the Scientific Method backed by empirical evidence, scientists had the potential to reform European thought. One of the key scientists during the 17th and 18th centuries was Johannes Kepler, who theorized about planetary motion and speed. Another important scientist of the revolution was Galileo Galilei. With his invention of the telescope, astronomers could get the empirical evidence they needed to prove hypotheses that would have otherwise been rejected by the majority of the scientific world. One of the last major scientists of this era was Sir Isaac Newton. He proved a law of universal gravitation that we still rely on today. Kepler, Galilei, and Newton were a few of the scientists that, with the use of the Scientific Method, reformed society’s thoughts of the physical world during the 17th and 18th centuries. Many Europeans prior to the Scientific Revolution studied and accepted the findings of Aristotle and Ptolemy. Aristotle (384-322 BC.) was an important Greek philosopher and scientist. He spent much of his life “exploring the meaning and properties of being and of nature.”1 Aristotle, like most ancient philosophers, was concerned with causation. He was intrigued by the thought of the First Cause, or the Prime Mover, which was the name given to the initial event that set everything into motion. While Aristotle focused much of his research on human thought and our capacity for knowledge, Ptolemy concerned himself with more physical, tangible aspects of our universe. The Ptolemaic system was “an earth-centered view of the universe.”2 This system attempted to analyze the motions of celestial bodies to predict their future positions. The Ptolemaic system assumed that the Earth was the center of the universe and that all the heavenly bodies were perfect spheres with circular orbits. Because of this assumption, Ptolemy had to insert smaller circles and confusing equations into his system to compensate for planetary motion that did not support his predictions. Even though confusing, Europeans backed the Ptolemaic system for years, until the advent of the heliocentric theory set forth by Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th century. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) lived during the height of the Renaissance, a time when Italy was going through major changes and social reform. Copernicus set the foundation for the Scientific Revolution; although a detailed explanation of his work is not necessary, a brief summary will help in understanding Western Europeans’ ideas leading up to the 16th century. Copernicus’s main goal was to seek “a new solution to the age-old problem of the planets: how to explain the apparently erratic planetary movements by means of a simple, clear, elegant mathematical formula.”3 Copernicus based much of his work on attempting to correct all of the confusion caused by his predecessor, Ptolemy. However, he still believed, as Ptolemy did, that the planets moved with uniform circular motion. This tradition forced Copernicus’s equations and theories “finally to have as much mathematical complexity as Ptolemy’s.”4 However, Copernicus did make progress in unraveling the mystery of the planets. He changed Ptolemy’s system from an earth-centered theory to a sun-centered one. This heliocentric theory, as it was then called, was later followed up and simplified by Kepler, Galilei, and Newton. Scientific experimentation, to the extent that Kepler, Galilei, and Newton relied on, could not have been achieved without a process for them to follow. Present day scientists have concluded that “precisely what differentiated seventeenth-century science from that of the Middle Ages was the discovery and practice of a new experimental methodology.”5 This new methodology is called the Scientific Method and, in it’s most elementary form, is simply a physical process of four basic steps:. Identify the issue or topic. Form a hypothesis about a specific issue. Gather data by one of four methods:examine existing sourcessurvey (i.e. written questionnaire or oral interview)observationexperimentation. Analyze the data and present findings6In a logical sense, the Scientific Method answers the question, “What kind of operation known to occur in Nature, applied to [this] particular case, will unravel and explain [this] mystery.”7 More generally, it is any process that guides scientific research and experimentation to reproducible results. This process usually consists o