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200 BCE
Eratosthenes
Used the sun to make a very accurate (given what he had at the time) measurement of the round Earth that was only around 200 miles off. While this is an important fact, it was not used during his lifetime and long afterwards because most believed the Earth was flat. This measurement was made sometime during his life of 276-195 B.C. -
130
Claudius Ptolemy
Created the model for the geocentric universe. This work was important at the time because it was taught for centuries, but later was proven to be false. This model was made sometime during his lifespan of 90-168 AD -
1503
Copernicus
Brought the idea of the heliocentric universe to the Renaissance. He was not the first to have this idea and was wrong about his ideas of how the planets moved. Also proposed the idea that the Earth moved on it's axis. While these are important theories, his work was also not used at the time. These ideas were created sometime in his life of 1473-1543 -
1576
Tycho Brahe
He dedicated his life to recording planetary positions much more accurate than they had been at the time and was successful. This is a large accomplishment as it was done before the invention of the modern telescope. This data would also help Kepler later on. 1546-1601 -
Johannes Kepler
Used Tycho Brahe's data to create the laws of planetary motion. These laws are very important as they are still used today. 1571-1630 -
Sir Issac Newton
Formulated the basic laws of motion that proved Kepler's laws to be true. Newton was instrumental in the scientific revolution. 1642-1727 -
Albert Einstein
A name that is very well known today, Einstein is regarded by many as one of the greatest physicists of all time. He proposed that the laws of physics are the same throughout the universe through the theory of relativity and helped shape our understanding of space and time. 1879-1955