1. Scientific Revolution Backgrounder
CHY 4U
Scientific Revolution Backgrounder

2. Origins of Scientific Revolution
Non-western sources (incl. Avicenna)
Partly from the Renaissance
new discoveries about blood pressure, classification, calculus, anatomy, circulation (Vesalius), linear perspective, weapons
Ideas don’t have to fit preconceived notions of the universe (humanism)
Challenge to tradition

3. New?: The Scientific Method
Islamic science and medicine had long been based on:
Observation
Experiment
E.g., translation Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine (1025) was one of the most influential books in Europe
Rather than…
Information fitting into pre-existing worldviews (especially of the Catholic Church).

4. Tusi Couple and Copernicus
Al-Tusi
John Baez, Rolling Circles and Balls, Sept. 11, 2012,
(Feb. 25, 2016).

5. Islam and Astronomy
Muslims needed to locate Mecca for daily prayer and for special occasions such as beginning and end of Ramadan
Nasr al-Din al-Tusi (b. 1201)
Built an observatory
Memoir on Astronomy
Idea of 2 circles (the tusi-couple) similar to what Copernicus later came up with
Jim Al-Khalili, House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge
and Gave Us the Renaissance (New York: Penguin, 2011), pp

6. Geocentric Model of the Solar System
The Geocentric Paradigm, Philosophy: Chinese/Japanese 350, 2006.
(Feb. 21, 2013).

7. European Geocentrism: Sacred
Old View of the Universe
based on Aristotle and Ptolemy
spheres revolve around earth which doesn’t move
heavenly bodies attached to spheres
10 spheres, highest is the home of God
perfect circular motion of spheres
humans at centre, special relationship with God

8. Heliocentric Model
NASA Earth Observatory. Feature Article: Planetary Motion: The History of an Idea that Launched the Scientific Revolution
(Sept. 6, 2010).

9. Copernicus’s On the Revolutions…
Copernicus’ math was also inspired by the work of Ibn al-Shatir
Rare Book Library at the University of Sydney. Origins of Modernity Online Exhibition: Cosmology and Astronomy – Copernicus.
(Sept. 6, 2010); Al-Khalili, House of
Wisdom, pp

10. Brahe’s Universe and Uranibourg Observatory
Rice University. Galileo Project: Science – Tycho Brahe, Tychonic Universe
(Sept. 6, 2010); Long, Tony. Wired. August 8, 1576: Brahe’s Palatial Gateway to the Heavens (Sept. 15, 2010).

11. Kepler Used Brahe’s Data
Elliptical orbits of planet
PBS Online/WNET New York. Stephen Hawking’s Universe. N.d. (Sept.
15, 2010).

12. Galileo’s Telescope
Museo Galileo. Institute and Museum of the History of Science. Multimedia Catalogue
(Sept. 6, 2010).

13. Phases of Venus, 1623
International Year of Astronomy Graphic Description of Venus Phases
(Sept. 6, 2010).

14. Moons of Jupiter, 1610
NASA. Solar System Exploration – Galileo’s Journal (Sept. 6,
2010).

15. Galileo’s Dialogo, 1632
Aristotle, Ptolemy and Copernicus discussing the universe
Library of Congress – European Collections Science and Technology. (Sept. 15,
2010).