History 311 THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION Part II
Plato and Aristotle Matter and Form Potentiality and Actuality Actuality is the fulfillment of the end of the potentiality Five Elements Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Aether Fire – Hot & Dry Earth – Cold & Dry Air – Hot & Wet Water – Cold & Wet Aether – Divine Substance
MAN GOD Nature Essentially Qualitative Teleological View of World As Great Chain of Being
Ptolemy 16 th Century Illustration of Ptolemy (2 nd century) Using Quadrant to Measure Angle Of Star Altitude Uranius, Muse of Astronomy, in Background
Sub-Lunary Sphere
Zodiacal Man Parts of the Body Over Which the Specific Signs Have Particular Powers
Humoral Theory Humoral Theory –Influence of Galen and Arabs Basic Humors Basic Humors –Blood (hot), Phlegm (cold), Yellow Bile (dry), Black Bile (wet) Material Substances Material Substances –Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Theory of Temperament Pessimistic Wet, Black Bile Choleric Dry, Yellow Bile Sanguine, Hot, Dry Blood Plegmatic, Cold, Wet phlegm
System of Epicycles
Epicycle with Higher Complexity
Heliocentric Worldview Copernicus
Giordano Bruno Plurality of Worlds Infinite Universe Rotation of the Earth Infinite Universe of Four Elements Burned at Stake in 1600
Tycho Brahe Uraniborg Observatory in Denmark Supernova of 1572
Great Comet of 1577 Brahe’s Notebook on Comet
Tychonian System of Planetary Motion
Johannes Kepler Astronomer and Astrologer Emphasis on Mathematics Accepts Heliocentric View Elliptical Obits Laws of Planetary Motion Rejects Copernican View of Perfect Orbits
The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the sun at one of the foci. Thus, Kepler rejected the ancient Aristotelean, Ptolemaic,and Copernican belief in circular motion.orbitplanetellipse A line joining a planet and the sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time as the planet travels along its orbit. This means that the planet travels faster while close to the sun and slows down when it is farther from the sun. With his law, Kepler destroyed the Aristotelean astronomical theory that planets have uniform velocity.linevelocity The squares of the orbital periods of planets are directly proportional to the cubes of the semi-major axes (the "half- length" of the ellipse) of their orbits. This means not only that larger orbits have longer periods, but also that the speed of a planet in a larger orbit is lower than in a smaller orbit.squaresorbital periods proportionalcubessemi-major axes Kepler’s Three Mathematical Laws of Planetary Motion
William Gilbert Gilbert’s terrella Work on Magnets
Galileo Galilei Starry Messenger, 1610 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, 1632
Galileo’s Sketch of the Phases of the Moon
1857 Painting by Christiano Banti of Galileo Before the Roman Inquisition Actual Trial in 1633