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People believed in religious scripts, ancient teachings of philosophers, and astrology. People did not question society's way of thinking, they did not make their own observations. They believed that the happenings of nature were because of magic and had people called Alchemists figure out "spells" and "potions" to alter substances.
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Roger Bacon was the first person to begin to introduce the concept of experimenting and making observations yourself to figure things out instead of blindly following traditional mindsets.
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Copernicus created astronomy as it is known today. Inspired by the Scientific Revolution, Copernicus rejected Ptolemy's ancient theory that the sun revolved around the earth in the early 1500s, and he worked on making his own theory until 1543 when his ideas were published and released to the public. His theory stated that the earth revolved about the sun.
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The Scientific Revolution encouraged people to be more open-minded, and gave them the opportunity to question traditional beliefs and think in unconventional ways. Ultimately, the Scientific Revolution allowed people to think up of conclusions on their own with their own means. The Scientific Revolution did not happen in one night, it spanned across many years.
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Physician Harvey studied how blood moved through veins and arteries and how the heart work, setting the stage for medical advances in the future.
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After years of studying the human body, Vesalius came up with an organized idea of human anatomy. He published a book in 1543 on his ideas, complete with specific drawings of the human body.
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Kepler proved Copernicus's (heliocentric) theory that the earth revolved around the sun correct by using mathematics. He studied many of Copernicus's theories and revelations, proving many of them wrong in the process. In 1609, Kepler published his "laws of planetary motion" in which he showed that Copernicus's heliocentric theory was correct.
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Galileo was able to provide visual evidence that the sun revolves around the earth. He built a primitive telescope that could see out in space. This information caused him to believe that not all objects in space revolve around the earth.
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Boyle created the field of chemistry by studying the different forms of matter and what makes it up. He was able to prove in 1662 that temperature and pressure have an affect on gas.
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Bacon had specific ideas on how to do a scientific experiment. He published a book in 1620 that detailed his beliefs; such as the fact that ideas must be able to be shown physically and not just reasoned out on a piece of paper.
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Galileo published discoveries he had found with his telescope in 1632. People were outraged as many were still faithful that Ptolemy's (geocentric) theory was correct. The Church also condemned Galileo and his findings as it appeared as if they were challenging the bible.
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Galileo created the study of objects in motion by stating that if air doesn't provide friction, then all objects will fall at the same rate regardless of their weight. As expected, he had to to many scientific experiments to prove that this was the case.
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Descartes came up with a precise experimental system which he detailed in his book. He stated that ideas should be proven by many facts before being accepted as the truth. He also came up with several discoveries and laws himself such as the law of refraction.
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Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria and things too small for the human eye to see with a microscope. This opened up a whole new field of science never before imaged.
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Newton made many scientific discoveries and advances after years of experimenting and work. In 1687, Newton published a book that would forever change science. was able to explain why the earth revolves around the sun. He created the law of universal gravitation and elaborated on the laws of motion. He created a mathematical way to measure motion. Newton allowed science to become a standard way of thinking and become applicable to every day life.
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Priestley, a chemist, discovered the element, Oxygen, in 1774.
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Lavoisier discovered how fire happens, and others later used his work to come up with the law of conservation of matter.
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Science and its customs had reached just about every refined part of Europe by the late 1700s. From there, people continued to make new discoveries and laws, strengthening science's presence and affect on daily life.