Chapter 15
 Science is a Latin word that means “to know”
 Science became a way to find truth about the natural
world
 Scientist based their new method of doing something
into steps called the Scientific Method
 Francis Bacon, a philosopher, believed that
scientists should use inductive reasoning to find
out about the natural world.
 Bacon developed the five steps of the Scientific
Method
 1st step: Scientist picks a problem or question
 2nd step: Scientist makes a Hypothesis
 Hypothesis: an educated guess
 3rd step: Scientist does an experiment and controls it
 4th step: Scientist observes and takes notes over the
experiment
 5th step: Scientist draws a conclusion from the notes
taken in step four.
 The conclusion helps the scientist decide if their Hypothesis
was correct
 In 150 A.D., Ptolemy, an Egyptian scientist, developed
a Theory about heavenly movement
 Ptolemy stated that the earth was the center of the
universe
 That the sun and the five known planets revolved
around the earth
 The Catholic Church accepted Ptolemy’s theory for
1,400 years
 Nicolaus Copernicus , in 1543, published a book that
the sun not the earth was the center of the universe
 Copernicus based his ideas on logical thinking and
geometry
 Copernicus also stated that the earth was spinning like
a top
 Martin Luther stated that Copernicus was a fool
 “if the earth spins, why don’t things fly off the earth into
space?”
 In 1600’s, a German, Johannes Kepler proved that
Copernicus’s theory was correct
 Using mathematics, Kepler showed the shape of a
planet’s orbit around the sun
 Planets orbit in an ellipse
 Born in 1564
 Taught mathematics at the University of Padua until
1610
 In 1609, he built his own telescope to use to look at the
night sky
 A Dutch lens maker made the telescope in 1608 which
inspired Galileo to create his own
 1st looked and studied the moon and it’s rough surface
 2nd looked at the sun and noted dark sun spots
 3rd studied all the known planets and their orbits
 Found Jupiter had 4 moons
 Galileo saw that all were imperfect and changing
 Galileo’s findings proved Copernicus correct
 Galileo’s findings contradicted the Catholic Church
belief
 The Catholic Church in 1616 that Copernicus’s book
could not be read
 Galileo tried to get around this censorship by
publishing a book in 1632
 The Catholic Church saw Galileo’s book as an attack
 The Roman Inquisition ordered Galileo to appear
before it
 Roman Inquisition: the Catholic Court that
inquired into people’s religious beliefs
 Galileo was put on trial in 1633
 The Roman Inquisition forced Galileo to admit that he
was wrong
 They forced him to say that Copernicus’s theory was
Heresy
 Heresy: teaching a belief that goes against religious
teachings
 The ordered Galileo to be imprisoned in his home but
he continued to work
 Galileo did many experiments that proved Aristotle
wrong
 Example: two 10 lb balls fell at the same rate as a 1 lb ball
 Galileo showed that gravity makes all objects on Earth
fall that the same rate of speed
 Galileo is called the Father of Experimental Science
 Born in 1642 in England
 At the age of 23, Newton left London when a plague
broke out to protect his health
 During this time Newton made two important
discoveries
 1st the white light is a mixture of all colors
 2nd why objects appear to be a certain color
 Newton stated that red objects appear red because it
reflects red light and absorbs all other colors.
 Newton proved his theory with using a Prism
 Prism: a three-sided object that can be seen
through
 Newton begin to think of gravity and used a falling
apple to explain his theory
 Earth attracts objects to itself that is why things do not
fly off
 Newton then proved that gravity caused different
kinds of motion
 Scientific Law is the predictable pattern in science
 All objects in the universe have a predicted pattern
 Newton’s discovery of this natural pattern is called
Universal Law of Gravitation
 In 1687, Newton published a book about his work
 It inspired more scientist
 It showed that he universe was orderly and logical
 In 1727, at the age of 85, Newton died
 A Belgian Doctor
 Studied anatomy
 Dissected human bodies and published his findings in
1543
 The book contained thousands of careful drawings of
the parts of the human body
 Vesalius’s book was the beginning of the modern study
of Anatomy
 English Doctor
 Also studied the human body
 Performed experiments on animal hearts and blood
vessels
 Discovered that the heart acts like a pump circulating
blood through the vessels of the body
 In 1628 Harvey published his findings
 An Englishman
 Explained that the earth was a large magnet at it’s core
and that is why a compass always points north
 Also studied Amber
 Amber: a hard, yellowish remains of a liquid that
comes out of trees
 Explained that had amber had an electric charge and
that is why it attracts other objects
 In 1752, Franklin proved that lighting was a form of
static electricity.
 Static Electricity is when one object rubs up against
another causing a electric charge
 Franklin’s work lead to the lighting rod being
developed to protect buildings and tall trees from
being damaged
 Symbols were created to help scientists use one
universal language
 Addition (+), Subtraction (-), Multiplication (x),
Division (÷), and Equality (=)
 John Napier turned multiplication & division problems
into addition & subtraction problems
 René Descartes, a Frenchman, found a way to
represent points in space, which is called Analytic
Geometry
 In 1590s, a Dutch eyeglass maker invented the
microscope
 In 1674, Anton van Leeuwenhoek created a lens that
magnified an object 270 times
 Leeuwenhoek was the first person to see one-celled
animals
 Leeuwenhoek also proved that fleas and flies hatch
from eggs
 Christian Huygens in 1656 invented a new clock
 Gabriel Fahrenheit invented a thermometer
 Anders Celsius invented a thermometer