THE “SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION,” OR THE CROOKED PATH TOWARD NEWTONIAN PHYSICS 1543 Copernicus publishes On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies 1576Tycho Brahe builds an observatory 1609 Johannes Kepler proposes the model of elliptical orbits around the sun 1632 Galileo Galilei publishes the Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World (only accepted by the Vatican in 1984) 1637Descartes, Discourse on Method 1687 Sir Isaac Newton publishes the Principia mathematica, or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

The Ptolemaic, geocentric theory of the universe

The apparent path of Mars, as seen from the earth in 2005/06

The model of “epicycles” developed by Ptolemaic astronomers

Illustration from Copernicus, The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (1543)

Tycho Brahe’s underground observatory at Stellaborg (1580)

Tycho Brahe ( ), observing the heavens

The models of Ptolemy, Copernicus, & Brahe (1600)

Johannes Kepler ( ) solved the problem by postulating elliptical orbits

Francis Bacon, Novum Organum (1620): “Many will travel, and knowledge will be increased.” René Descartes, author of the Discourse on Method (1637)

Portrait of Galileo Galilei ( )

Galileo’s map of the moon, 1609: The telescope showed that the moon was subject to decay

The Aristotelian theory of “impetus” – Galileo postulated the principle of “inertia” instead

The principle of “inertia” suggested a new approach to both ballistics and celestial mechanics, vector analysis

Galileo published his Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World in 1632

Otto von Guericke demonstrates the power of the vacuum (Magdeburg, 1663)

A physician & monk rebuke a barber/surgeon for performing a dissection

Andreas Vesalius dissecting a cadaver (1547)

Portrait of William Harvey ( ), who discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood

Thomas Hobbes ( ): “In the state of nature, the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651): “Man is but a machine…”

Sir Isaac Newton ( ), who discovered the universal law of gravitation, the three laws of thermodynamics, & differential calculus; he published the Principia Mathematica in 1687.

Newton’s range of interests: calculus, monetary exchange rates, and New Testament Greek

The ornate tomb of Sir Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey

The Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, 1698, founded by King Louis XIV