-
Period: 100 to
Scientific Revolution
Timelines of key evens and people -
1543
Nicklaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus theory was published in 1543. The heliocentric theory was a big part of his work because the geocentric theory didn't accurately explain the movements of the sun, moon and planets and he wanted to prove to the Church that his theory is the truth about the solar system. Though most people did not believe him because they did not "feel" the earth move. This challenged the way people thought because most people thought that the earth was the center of the universe. -
1543
Andreas Vesalius
Andreas Vesalius studied the human body. He believed that there was more than what was just found. He did his own studies to see how the human body was constructed. -
1570
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe was a Danish nobleman and astronomer, and he was one of the individuals whose work helped overturn that belief in favor of a heliocentric model of the universe, with the sun at the center. Tycho Brahe's astronomical observations that eventually helped to prove this, he personally believed that the earth was motionless and at the center of our universe. -
William Harvey
william harvey always believed that the liver was the center of circulation within the body. Some practitioners had hinted at their rejection of this idea but it was Harvey who specifically disproved it and put his research into a written document. William Harvey was the first person to correctly describe blood's circulation in the body. He showed that arteries and veins form a complete circuit. The circuit starts at the heart and leads back to the heart. -
Anton Van Leewenhoek
Antoni Van Leewenhoek was a Dutch tradesman and scientist, best known for his work on the development and improvement of the microscope. Using handcrafted microscopes, Anton van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to observe and describe single celled organisms, which he originally referred to as animalcules. He was also the first to record and observe muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa and blood flow in capillaries -
Gottfried Liebnitz
Gottfried Libnitz went on to become one of the most productive inventors of mechanical calculators, inventing both the pinwheel calculator and the Leibniz wheel. -
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler believed that planets revolved around the sun. He tried to use mathematics to prove his theory. He used the observations made by his employer, Tycho Brahe, he found that planets revolve around the sun in a oval-shaped orbits called ellipses. He had one other discovery which was the planets orbit faster when closer to the sun. His third was the time it takes to make a complete orbit around the sun. -
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon developed a method for philosophers to use in weighing the truthfulness of knowledge. While Bacon agreed with medieval thinkers that humans too often erred in interpreting what their five senses perceived, he also realized that people's sensory experiences provided the best possible means of making sense of the world. -
Galileo Galilei
Galileo believed that the scientific study would change the way people understood the word and themselves. He also helped to prove that Nicklaus Copernicus's new understanding of the universe was right. He also built his own device, the telescope. -
Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes He is famous for having made an important connection between geometry and algebra, which allowed for the solving of geometrical problems by way of algebraic equations. He is also famous for having promoted a new conception of matter, which allowed for the accounting of physical phenomena by way of mechanical explanations. However, he is most famous for having written a relatively short work,Meditations On First Philosophy, published in 1641. -
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle built the air-pump used in many of Boyle's most important experiments including the establishing the necessity of air for combustion, for animal breathing, and for the transmission of sound. -
Samuel Hartlib
Samuel Hartlib was a Prussian who first came to England in the mid-1620s, when his initial contacts were with the University of Cambridge.where the academy which he established soon failed, and then in London. He was deeply influenced by the Utopian writings of Francis Bacon. Both of these authors suggested that the reform of education might lead to universal improvement and peace, and seemed to Hartlib to offer practical solutions to the confusion and hatred. -
Issac Newton
ssac Newton was a physicist and mathematician who developed the principles of modern physics, including the laws of motion. He was also known for supporting Copernicus, kepler, and Galileo's work. They have together shown that the planets, including the earth, revolve around the sun. Later on he found that force is what holds the planets together in their orbits -
Royal Society
The early years of the Society saw revolutionary advancements in the conduct and communication of science. Joined by other leading polymaths including Robert Boyle and John Wilkins, the group soon received royal approval, and from 1663 it would be known as 'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge'. -
Joseph Priestly
Joseph Priestly answered age-old questions of why and how things burn. An Englishman by birth, Priestley was deeply involved in politics and religion, as well as science. He investigated gas. He is noted for his amazing contributions to experimental chemistry, electricity and the chemistry of gases, as well as his extraordinary work regarding liberal political and religious thought. -
Antoine Lavoiser
Antoine Lavoisier disproved the phlogiston theory. He demonstrated that there was an element called oxygen that played a major role in combustion. He also showed that the mass of products in a reaction are equal to the mass of the reactants. In other words, no mass is lost in a chemical reaction. This became known as the Law of Conservation of Mass and is one of the most important and basic laws of modern chemistry and physics.
