Chapter 13 – The Scientific Revolution

Section NotesA New View of the WorldDiscoveries and InventionsScience and Society

VideoThe Scientific Revolution

ImagesGreek ThinkersRoots of the Scientific RevolutionSir Isaac NewtonScience and Religion

Quick FactsKepler’s DiscoveriesThe Scientific MethodRationalism and DemocracyChapter 13 Visual Summary

A New View of the World

The Big Idea

Europeans drew on earlier ideas to develop a new way of gaining knowledge about the natural world.

Main Ideas

• The Scientific Revolution marked the birth of modern science.

• The roots of the Scientific Revolution can be traced to ancient Greece, the Muslim world, and Europe.

7.10.1

Main Idea 1:The Scientific Revolution marked the

birth of modern science.

The series of events that led to the birth of modern science is called the Scientific Revolution.

The Birth of Modern Science

• Science was a completely different way of looking at the world.

• Science starts with observations, and then scientists begin to identify the facts.

• The explanations that scientists develop based on the facts are called theories.

• Scientists design experiments to prove their theories.

Main Idea 2:The roots of the Scientific Revolution

can be traced to ancient Greece, the Muslim world, and Europe.

• Some of the ideas of science had been expressed long before the Scientific Revolution.

• Some of the basic ideas of science are ancient.

• Greek philosophers argued that people should observe the world carefully and draw logical conclusions.

• Greek thinkers such as Aristotle and Ptolemy were rationalists. Europeans studied their work and also began to view the world in a rational way, thinking like scientists.

Roots of the Revolution

• Greek thinkers such as Aristotle wrote about astronomy, geography, and many other fields.

• Aristotle’s greatest contribution was the idea that people should observe the world carefully and make logical, reasonable conclusions.

• Ptolemy was another Greek thinker who believed in observations of the real world.

• These types of thinkers were known as rationalists, people who looked at the world in a rational, or reasonable and logical, way.

• European scholars could study Greek writing because Muslim scholars had translated it from Greek to Arabic. It was then translated into Latin, which was read in Europe.

Discoveries and Inventions

The Big Idea

During the Scientific Revolution, new ideas and inventions changed the nature of knowledge.

Main Ideas

• The discovery of the Americas led scholars to doubt the ancient Greek ideas.

• Advances in astronomy were key events of the Scientific Revolution.

• Sir Isaac Newton developed laws that explained much of the natural world.

• New inventions helped scientists study the natural world.

7.10.2

Main Idea 1:The discovery of the Americas led scholars to

doubt ancient Greek ideas.

The ancient Greeks had been the authority on many things, including geography, but the discovery of the Americas made Europeans begin to doubt the Greeks.

The Discovery of the Americas

• Christopher Columbus set out to sail to Asia using a map created by the ancient Greek Ptolemy.

• Columbus reached North America before he reached Asia.

• This proved that the ancient Greek authorities were incorrect.

• This led other people to question the theories of the ancient Greeks.

Main Idea 2:Advances in astronomy were key events of

the Scientific Revolution.

• In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published a book that contradicted what the Greek authorities had written. Many historians believe that this book marked the beginning of the Scientific Revolution.– The Greeks believed the earth was at the center of the

universe.– Copernicus said the planets orbited the sun.

• Tycho Brahe charted the positions of hundreds of stars, using careful observation and detailed recordings.

• Johannes Kepler observed that planets moved in oval orbits, not circular ones.

• Galileo Galilei was the first person to study the sky with a telescope. He used experiments to test his theories.

Main Idea 3:Sir Isaac Newton developed laws that explained much of the natural world.

The high point of the Scientific Revolution was marked by the publication of a book by a very famous scientist, Sir Isaac Newton.

Sir Isaac Newton

• Sir Isaac Newton was a British scientist, who wrote the book Principia Mathematica.

• Newton studied and simplified the work of earlier scientists. He coupled it with his own observations and identified four theories that prove how the world works.

• Some of the theories have been proved so many times that they are now called laws.

• One of Newton’s laws is called the law of gravity. The other three are called the laws of motion.

• Newton also invented calculus, a branch of mathematics.

Main Idea 4:New inventions helped scientists study the

natural world.

During the Scientific Revolution, scientists invented instruments that helped them study the natural world.

New Inventions

• A Dutch scientist developed the simple microscope.

• Galileo invented the first thermometer and built a much-improved telescope.

• The barometer was invented to measure air pressure. Barometers are used to help forecast the weather.

• These inventions gave scientists the tools they needed to make more accurate observations and to conduct experiments.

Science and Society

The Big Idea

The Scientific Revolution led to the establishment of science as a method of learning, new ideas about government,

and conflict with religious authorities.

Main Ideas

• The ideas of Francis Bacon and René Descartes helped to clarify the scientific method.

• Science influenced new ideas about government.

• Science and religion developed a sometimes uneasy relationship.

7.10.3

Main Idea 1:The ideas of Francis Bacon and René

Descartes helped to clarify the scientific method.

• The Scientific Revolution led to a dramatic change in the ways people learned about the world. The new, scientific way of gaining knowledge had far-reaching effects.

• The scientific method combined ideas from Bacon and Descartes. It is a step-by-step method for performing experiments and other scientific research.

Francis Bacon and René Descartes

• Francis Bacon was an English philosopher who read the works of the great scientists of the Scientific Revolution.

• He argued that science could be pursued in a systematic fashion.

• He published his ideas in his book The Advancement of Learning.

• René Descartes was a French philosopher who made great contributions to the establishment of science.

• He believed that nothing should be accepted until it is proven true.

The Six Basic Steps of the Scientific Method

• Stating the problem

• Gathering information

• Forming a hypothesis, a solution that the scientist proposes to solve the problem

• Testing the hypothesis by performing experiments

• Recording and analyzing data gathered from the experiments

• Drawing conclusions from the data collected

The scientific method combines Bacon’s idea of a systematic scientific process, Descartes’s insistence on proof and clear reasoning, and the work of other scientists.

Main Idea 2:Science influenced new ideas about

government.

Some of the important effects of the Scientific Revolution had nothing to do with science at all.

Science and Government

• The Scientific Revolution taught people that human reason or logical thought was a powerful tool.

• The use of reason to consider the problems of society led philosophers to look at ways to improve society.

• The idea that all things in nature were equal led people to believe that since all laws in society were equal, everyone in society should be equal as well.

• This sense of equality led to the introduction of more democratic ideas for government.

Main Idea 3:Science and religion developed a sometimes

uneasy relationship.

The Roman Catholic Church was a powerful force in Europe during the time of the Scientific Revolution. The birth and growth of science led to conflicts between scientists and the church.

The new field of science was putting forth ideas that conflicted with the teachings of the church.

Conflicts between scientists and the church.

One such theory was that the earth revolved around the sun, not that the sun revolved around the earth, as the church taught.

Church officials believed that when scientific theories contradicted the church, they weakened the church.

The church feared that people might start to doubt the key elements of their faith.

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