HCHS
World History
Chapter 1; Section 5
WH.2.2.1(A) – Define technology and list examples of technological developments.
WH.5.5.1(A) – Recognize factors leading to development of modern civilizations.
WH.5.9.2(A) – Illustrate ways technological advancements influenced world events.
Focus Question – How did discoveries in science lead to a new way of thinking for Europeans?
As new astronomical discoveries challenged accepted views of the universe, scientists in all fields
began to rely on observation rather than accepted wisdom.
In the mid-1500’s, the Scientific Revolution pointed toward a future shaped by a new way of
thinking about the physical universe.
At the heart of the Scientific Revolution was the assumption that mathematical laws governed
nature and the universe.
Ptolemy and Aristotle had taught that the Earth was the center of the universe.
This view seemed to agree with common sense and it was accepted by the church.
In 1543, Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.
In it, he proposed a heliocentric, or sun-centered, model of the universe.
In the late 1500’s, the Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, provided evidence that supported
Copernicus’s theory.
After Brahe’s death, his assistant, Johannes Kepler, used Brahe’s data to calculate the orbits of the
planets revolving around the sun.
His calculations supported Copernicus’s view.
They showed that each planet moved in an oval-shaped orbit called an ellipse.
Galileo Galilei assembled an astronomical telescope.
He observed that the four moons of Jupiter move slowly around Jupiter the way Copernicus said
that Earth moves around the sun.
The church condemned Galileo because his ideas challenged the Christian teaching.
Galileo was tried before the Inquisition, and for a year afterward he was kept under house arrest.
Why was Copernicus’s theory seen as radical?
It contradicted both Church teachings and common sense.
During the Renaissance, the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato were rediscovered.
Plato believed that mathematics was the key to learning nature’s truths.
Two giants of this Scientific Revolution were Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes.
Both said that truth is not known at the beginning of inquiry but at the end.
Bacon stressed experimentation and observation.
Descartes emphasized human reasoning as the best way to understanding.
Over time, a step-by-step process of discovery evolved that became known as the scientific
method.
The scientific method required scientists to collect and accurately measure data.
To explain the data, scientists used reasoning to propose a logical hypothesis, or possible
explanation.
They would test the hypothesis with observation or experimentation.
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HCHS
After reaching a conclusion, scientists repeated their work at least once to confirm and refine
their hypotheses or formulate better ones.
How did Bacon and Descartes each approach the new scientific method?
Bacon emphasized experimentation and observation.
Descartes emphasized human reasoning.
Dramatic changes in many branches of science, especially medicine and chemistry, occurred
during this period.
Andreas Vesalius published On the Structure of the Human Body.
This was the first accurate and detailed study of human anatomy.
In the early 1600’s, William Harvey, an English scholar, described the circulation of the blood for
the first time.
The Dutch inventor Anton van Leeuwenhoek perfected the microscope and became the first
human to see cells and microorganisms.
The branch of science now called chemistry was called alchemy.
Alchemists believed that any substance could be transformed into any other substance.
English chemist Robert Boyle explained all matter being composed of tiny particles that behave in
knowable ways.
How did Boyle transform the science of chemistry?
Boyle established that all matter is composed of tiny particles that behave in certain knowable
ways.
Isaac Newton formed a theory why the planets moved as they did by the age of 24.
Newton showed that a single force keeps the planets in their orbit around the sun.
He called this force gravity.
Newton published a book explaining the law of gravity and other workings of the universe.
How did Newton use observations of nature to explain the movements of the planets?
He said that objects he observed falling to Earth must have been pulled by the same forces that
moved the planets.
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