1

A Brief History of Science

Lecture 7 – The Scientific
Revolution
THOMAS OSIPOWICZ|GEH1018
The Scientific Revolution
2
 An introduction to the scientific, social and historical context of the Scientific Revolution.
 We will look at the role of the following people in the development of science and the
scientific method in the period 1500 to 1700: Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Bruno, Galileo,
Descartes, Newton, Hooke, Huygens and Halley.
 We discuss the puzzle of stellar parallax, and its impact on prevailing scientific theories and
explanations.
 Galileo’s experimental methodology on later scientific practice.
 Understand the socio-historical context of Galileo’s contributions and struggles, and how
personal, political and religious influences affected contemporary controversies.
 An example of Newton’s geometric method will be discussed.
 See how the development of calculus led to bitter controversies about priority, between
Newton and Leibnitz, with political overtones (Great Britain vs the Continent).
 See what Halley was able to achieve in astronomy: Halley’s Comet, southern skies and the
measurement of the solar system via the transit of Venus.

1. Copernicus: Heliocentric system

2. Galileo Galilei: Space telescope
3. Kepler: Accurate motions of space bodies
4. Newton: Gravity and others
5. Halley: Comet and other astronomical observations
The Scientific Revolution 1543-1687
3
Reformation took out the "restrictions" imposed by the Church.

 Scientific development and thinking, which had spectacularly restarted with the
Renaissance in Italy & Southern Europe was affected by the Counter Reformation.
 However, the spirit was out of the bottle.
 In this period, scientific principles were developed, and replaced much of ancient
magical and mystical thinking. (Still an ongoing process, though).
 Starting in the Renaissance, religious (Christian) restrictions on “magical” approaches
were loosened, many tried to find immortality, ways to make gold from lead and
similar.
 We can take the year of 1543 as a convenient date to indicate the start of the
Scientific Revolution which transformed first Europe, then the World.
 It was the year Nicolaus Copernicus published his book ‘On the Revolutions of the
Celestial Spheres’.
 Another landmark event was the start of the revolution in life sciences, biology and
medicine (not discussed here), also in 1543: Andreas Vesalius published his book ‘On
the Structure of the Human Body’.
 We will take 1687 as a convenient date to indicate the culmination of the Scientific
Revolution, being the date on which Isaac Newton published his book
‘Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy’.
The Scientific Revolution - Timeline
4
 Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543)
 He was an astronomer (and a medical doctor, and possibly a priest)
5
who first explicitly postulated the heliocentric model of the solar system
(after antiquity.)
 His book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of
the Celestial Spheres), is considered to the starting point of modern
astronomy, as well as a central and defining event in the entire history
of science.
 While heliocentric models had been proposed by Greek, Indian and Muslim philosophers
centuries before Copernicus, his restatement that the sun, rather than the Earth, is at the centre
of the solar system is considered among the most important landmarks in the history of modern
science.
 Looking at the impact of particular discoveries and individuals, clearly it was the work of
Copernicus, rather than any of the previous studies, which started modern science.
 In 1504 Copernicus began making astronomical observations, while working as a monk in
Poland.
 In 1514 he circulated among his friends a short handwritten text Commentariolus (Little
Commentary) which described his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis. Afterwards he
continued gathering data for a more detailed work.
 6

The Copernican
Universe

The Sun-centered
Universe,
From Narratio Prima,
Rheticus, 1596
 Nicolaus Copernicus
 In 1533, a series of lectures was delivered by Johann Widmannstetter, a German 7
humanist, orientalist, philologist, and theologian, in Rome, outlining Copernicus' theory.
These lectures were heard with interest by the Pope Clement VII and several Catholic
cardinals.
 In 1536, Nicholas Schönberg, Cardinal of Capua, wrote to Copernicus:
Some years ago word reached me concerning your proficiency, of which everybody
constantly spoke. At that time I began to have a very high regard for you, and also to
congratulate our contemporaries among whom you enjoyed such great prestige. For I
had learned that you had not merely mastered the discoveries of the ancient
astronomers uncommonly well but had also formulated a new cosmology. In it you
maintain that the earth moves; that the sun occupies the lowest, and thus the central,
place in the universe; that the eighth heaven remain perpetually motionless and fixed;
and that, together with the elements included in its sphere, the moon, situated between
the heavens of Mars and Venus, revolves around the sun in the period of a year. I have
also learned that you have written an exposition of this whole system of astronomy, and
have computed the planetary motions and set them down in tables, to the greatest
admiration of all. Therefore with the utmost earnestness I entreat you, most learned sir,
unless I inconvenience you, to communicate this discovery of yours to scholars, and at
the earliest possible moment to send me your writings on the sphere of the universe
together with the tables and whatever else you have that is relevant to this subject…
 Nicolaus Copernicus
 One important observation is that, no matter what happened later, the Church was not initially 8
critical of this idea, they were keen to hear more.
 By this time, Copernicus' book was nearing completion and rumours about his theory had
reached educated people all over Europe.
 Despite urgings from many quarters, Copernicus delayed the publication of his book, perhaps
from fear of criticism from the Church, as has been the popular view for centuries.
 But: If Copernicus had any real fear of publication, it was probably the reaction of natural
philosophers, not clerics, that worried him.
 Other churchmen before him had freely discussed the possible motion of the earth, and there
was no reason to suppose that this idea would cause a religious stir later, in the 16th century .
 When the book was published, it contained an unauthorized preface (probably by a friend,
Ossiander) intended to soften any religious backlash against the book, stating that Copernicus
wrote his heliocentric account as a ‘mathematical hypothesis’, not as an account that contained
truth or even probability. This may sound strange to us, because we are used to connect Math
with Physics and Astronomy.
 Consider: Since Euclid it was known that mathematical theorems are provable, given a set of
consistent (and hopefully “self-evident”) axioms. Euclid: The Elements, Infinite prime numbers, 15-sided polygon
 But: Math is logical, not causal: there is no time in the axioms, and no cause-effect relationship.
 Therefore, Aristotle did not consider Math a real science: Euclid’s lines are not found in nature.
Copernicus - Perfect Circles
9
False claim that was corrected by Johannes Kepler

 Copernicus was not fought for many decades: His calculations may be useful for
astronomical predictions, even navigation.
 Only when astronomy was taken as a physical science (unifying sub and translunar
worlds, as done by Galileo), the reaction was strong.
 A problem with his work was that he proposed that the sun was at the centre of the
solar system and that the planets moved in perfect circles around the sun.
 Copernicus did not dismiss Aristotle’s views on the perfection of the heavens and that
the motion of the planets was in circles (the most perfect of all shapes). He argued
that his theory was more ‘perfect’ than that of Aristotle.
 Even from astronomical data available at the time, Copernicus could see that his
theory did not match the data, and this troubled him. This was probably part of the
reason why he delayed publication until 1543.
 In order to account for the observations, he actually had to introduce more epicycles
than Ptolemy had!
 During the time of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton the case for the
heliocentric model was not complete: Observations could still not be explained by
either model, epicycles and such were necessary.
Stellar parallax I
10

WikiStefan für de.wikipedia

Stellar parallax II
11
Why didn't the angles or positions of stars change?

 Another major problem with the heliocentric model is that it predicted that the
visible stars should move in their positions throughout the year, by stellar parallax.
No-one could observe this effect and it was one of the major arguments against
the heliocentric universe.
 Parallax is an apparent displacement or difference of orientation of an object
viewed along two different lines of sight, and is measured by the half-angle of
between those two lines (triangulation). If there is an angle, and we know the
baseline, we can calculate the distance to the star.
 No parallax of the observable stars was observed, even with Galileo's new
telescopes!
 So, if indeed the Earth moved round the sun, why didn't the angular positions of the
stars change through the year?
 The answer is that the stars are really far away, so the parallax angle is tiny, as we
will see later. Only in 1838 was the first stellar parallax observed, by Bessel in
Germany.
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium

 It is said that the first printed copy of “De Rev” was placed in Copernicus’
12
hands on the day he died, allowing him to say farewell to his life's work.
 This book marks the beginning of the shift away from a geocentric solar
system and universe with the Earth at its centre.
 Copernicus held that the Earth is only another planet revolving around the
fixed sun once a year, and turning on its axis once a day.
 He arrived at the correct order of the known planets and explained the so-
called “precession of the equinoxes” correctly by a slow change in the
position of the Earth's rotational axis (NB: not examinable, for specialists.)
 He also gave a clear account of the cause of the seasons, that the Earth's
axis is not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit.
 It also explained the retrograde motion of Mars.
 This book however led to one of the most violent intellectual controversies
the world has known, and it took more than a century for the truth to be
accepted.
 Confirmation required both better data and better theory: accurate stellar Front cover of
and planetary positions were measured by the Danish astronomer Tycho
De Revolutionibus
Brahe, and their mathematical analysis was done by Johannes Kepler.
Size of planetary orbits - Copernicus (circular orbits)
13
 How did Copernicus do all that?
 One example:
 The planets inside the Earth’s orbit (inferior
planets), Mercury and Venus, were never
seen more than 28 and 46.5 from the Sun.
 Measurement of Venus orbit radius in terms
of the Earth orbit radius, which we defined β
as the astronomical unit (C =1 au).
 Observe Venus, find maximum angle to
the Sun, β: turns out to be 46.5.
 B = C sin β = sin β 1(au)= 0.72 au
 Slightly more complicated to calculate the
orbit radius for planets outside the Earth’s
orbit (superior planets), Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn.
 Retrograde Motion
14

 The observed motion of planets can easily

be explained qualitatively using
Copernicus’ model with circles as the form
of the orbits, no epicycles or deferents
needed.
 For quantitative agreement, again these
tricks are necessary, because the real
orbits are ellipses, and not exactly in the
same plane .
 Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601)
15
 He was a Danish nobleman in the same period as Kepler and
Galileo.
 As a teenager he witnessed an eclipse of the moon, after which he
decided to dedicate his life to astronomy.
 In 1572 he witnessed a nova (a star undergoing a short term
outburst of radiation). This shook up the view of the sky at the time
(i.e. perfect and unchanging).
 He spent his life collecting very accurate astronomical data
without a telescope – he was the last of the naked-eye
astronomers.
 He improved the accuracy of measurements of star and planet
positions by a factor of 20.
 His aim was to catalogue the planets and stars with enough
accuracy to determine whether the Ptolemy/Aristotle or
Copernican system was more valid in describing the motion of the
planets.
 Tycho Brahe Uraniborg: Built by Brahe, an astronomical
observatory and alchemy laboratory: Research was
(1546 – 1601)
done in the fields of astronomy, alchemy, and
meteorology (and, alas, astrology). 16

The island
Ven in
Öresund,
between
Denmark
and
Sweden

 He was not a mathematician, so could not analyse his data properly.

 Near the end of his life his assistant was a young man, Johannes Kepler,
but it was only after his death that Kepler was allowed to gain access
to this vast records of planetary observational data
 This would give Kepler the data base for his laws.
The great wall quadrant, used to measure the height of objects over the
horizon.
Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630 )
17
 Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer and
astrologer.
 At the age of six, he observed the Great Comet of 1577, and at
age nine, he observed the Lunar eclipse of 1580
 He is best known for his three laws of planetary motion.
 He published these in his books Astronomia Nova and
Harmonices Mundi.
 The modern formulation of his laws, in the form we know them,
were derived and formulated (later), by Isaac Newton.
 Newton demonstrated that his theory of universal gravitation
Johannes Kepler
does lead to Kepler’s laws of motion.
 Johannes Kepler – Laws of planetary motion
18

 These are known as Kepler's Laws, which he eventually published in his book
Astronomia Nova and Harmonices Mundi (Harmonies of the World).
 Kepler was able to show that the planets moved in elliptical paths around the sun
and not in circular paths as previously thought.
 Kepler set the stage for Newton to describe a more general law that governs
gravitational forces, based on Kepler's laws.
 Kepler was a practical man, he wrote: “God provides for every animal his means of
sustenance, for an astronomer, he has provided astrology.”
 Kepler's First Model of the Solar System I
19
 His first Copernican model of the solar system was based on ordering Platonic solids, one for
each planet, inside each other: octahedron, icosahedron, dodecahedron, tetrahedron, cube,
pyramid. He thought he had revealed God's geometrical plan for the universe.
 In 1600, Kepler met Tycho Brahe for the first time. Over the next two months he stayed as a guest,
analyzing some of Tycho's observations of the motion of Mars.
 Tycho jealously guarded his data but was impressed by Kepler's theoretical ideas and soon
allowed some more access to his data, knowing that he himself could never properly study it.
 It was only after Brahe's death in 1601 that he was able to gain full access to all of Brahe's data
and formulated the laws of planetary motion.

Kepler’s first model of the Solar System

 First Law
20

If two bodies interact

gravitationally, each will
describe an orbit that is a
conic section about the
common mass of the pair. If
the bodies are permanently
associated, their orbits will be
ellipses. If they are not
permanently associated with
each other, their orbits will be
hyperbolas.
=
[a]a
B. Ryden, Foundations of Astrophysics

This is a very “squeezed” ellipse, Solar system planetary orbits are

much closer to circles, the distance between the two foci is small
Conic Sections
21

These were known in Antiquity:

Take a right triangle and rotate

Cannot be constructed by compass and ruler

Second Law
22

If two bodies revolve around

each other under the influence
of a central force (whether or Day 1
not in a closed elliptical orbit), a
line joining them sweeps out Day 10

equal areas in the orbital plane Day 1

in equal intervals of time.
Day 10

B. Ryden, Foundations of Astrophysics

Third Law
23
If two bodies revolve mutually
about each other, the sum of
their masses times the square of
their period of mutual revolution
is in proportion to the cube of
the semi-major axis of the
relative orbit of one about the
other.

4 2
P =
2
a3
G(mSun + mPlanet )
4 2 3
 a (because mSun mPlanet )
G mSun
Third Law
24
(Period)2 (distance)3
Period T Average Distance
Planet T2 a3
(years) a (a.u.)
Mercury 0.241 0.387 0.05808 0.05796
Venus 0.616 0.723 0.37946 0.37793
Earth 1 1 1 1
Mars 1.88 1.524 3.5344 3.5396
Jupiter 11.9 5.203 141.61 140.85
Saturn 29.5 9.539 870.25 867.98
Uranus 84.0 19.191 7056 7068
Neptune 165.0 30.071 27225 27192
Pluto 248.0 39.457 61504 61429
This enables us to work out the exact distance of the planets from the sun in terms
of the earth distance from the sun, by measuring how long it takes them to make
one complete revolution.
 Giordano Bruno (1548 – 1600)
 He was an Italian philosopher, priest, cosmologist and occultist. 25
 For a catholic, he held dangerous religious views, based on early Egyptian
religion (Thoth, sun worship) and writings by Hermes Trismegistus. He
advocated that the catholic church follow his ideas.
 He supported Copernicus’s views on heliocentrism, presumably because they
also held the Sun as the most important object in the universe.
 He was eventually burned at the stake in 1600 as a heretic by the Roman
Catholic Inquisition for his views.
 Copernicanism was tainted and discredited after that in the eye’s of the
church because it was supported by such heretics as Bruno, not because
they were initially against it. Heretics: Practicing religious heresy (unorthodox)
 After Bruno, it became much more dangerous to support Copernicanism in
public.
 Copernicus’s book De Revolutionibus was placed on the index of banned
books in 1616, and not taken off again until 1835.
 In the year 2000 Pope John Paul II did apologize for the deaths of philosophers Giordano Bruno
Campo di Fiori, Rome, Italy
and scientists at the hand of the Inquisition, including Bruno.
Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)

The language of God is mathematics 26

 Galileo was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and
philosopher and was closely associated with the scientific revolution.
 His experimentally-based work was a significant break from the more
abstract approach of Aristotle.
 His achievements include the first systematic studies of uniformly
accelerated motion, the concept of inertia, improvements to the
telescope, a variety of astronomical observations, and support for
Copernicus’s ideas on heliocentrism.
 Galileo Galilei pioneered the use of quantitative experiments whose
results could be analysed with mathematical precision.
 More typical of science at the time were the qualitative studies of Galileo Galilei, 1636
William Gilbert (discussed later) on magnetism and electricity. (by Justus Sustermans)
 Galileo - the telescope and the moons of Jupiter
Replica of
 Galileo did not invent the telescope, as is often said. However, based Galileo’s 27
only on a rough description of the first telescope invented in the
telescope
Netherlands in 1608, he made one in 1609 with about 3x magnification,
and later made others with up to about 32x magnification.
 For a time, he was one of very few who could construct telescopes
good enough for observing the heavens.
 Around January 7-11, 1610 he discovered all four of Jupiter's large
moons.
 He noted that the moons appear and disappear periodically, an
observation he attributed to their movement behind Jupiter, and
concluded that they were orbiting the planet.
 He published his observations in March 1610 in a short book Sidereus
Nuncius (Starry Messenger). This made him famous, it was translated
into Chinese within five years.

Galileo's
Jupiter, seen sketches of the
through a moons of
small Jupiter, done in
telescope. January 1610
 Galileo - the telescope and the moons of Jupiter
The Galilean moons of Jupiter 28

Io

Europa

Ganymede

Callisto

Named after lovers of Zeus

(Ganymede was male)
Wikipedia: Phoenix7777 - Own work Data source: HORIZONS System, JPL, NASA
Galileo – the controversy begins
29

 For the first 45 years of his life, Galileo had publicly said nothing about his support for
Copernicus’ heliocentric model, even though he strongly supported it in private.
 His demonstration that a planet had smaller planets orbiting it was deeply
problematic for the orderly, comprehensive picture of the geocentric model of the
universe, in which everything circled around the Earth.
 The next year (1611) Galileo visited Rome in order to demonstrate his telescope to
the influential philosophers and mathematicians of the Jesuits and to let them see
with their own eyes the reality of the four moons of Jupiter.
 September 1610: Galileo observed that Venus exhibits a full set of phases (similar to
the Moon), as predicted by the heliocentric model, and not by Ptolemy’s system.
Galileo - the telescope
30
 He also observed the planet Saturn, and at first mistook its rings for planets,
thinking it was a three-body system.
 Galileo was one of the first Europeans to observe sunspots (he claimed he was
the first, and in general, he tried to claim many things as his own). Their
existence showed another difficulty with the unchanging perfection of the
heavens as assumed in the older natural philosophy.
 The oldest record of sunspot observation is in the Book of Changes, probably
the oldest extant Chinese book, compiled around 800 BC
 He was also the first to report lunar mountains and craters, whose existence he
deduced from the patterns of light and shadow on the Moon's surface. He even
estimated the mountains' heights from these observations. This led him to the
conclusion that the Moon was "rough and uneven, and just like the surface of
the Earth itself," rather than a perfect sphere as Aristotle had claimed.
 Galileo observed the Milky Way and his telescope resolved the clouds one sees
by the naked eye: he saw that they were stars, packed very densely.
Galileo - the telescope

 Interestingly, he did observe Neptune in 1612 (it was close to Saturn), but did not 31
realize that it was a planet and took no particular notice of it. It appears in his
notebooks as one of many unremarkable dim stars.
 Neptune was “officially” discovered in 1846, 234 years later….
 In 1612, having determined the orbital periods of Jupiter's satellites, Galileo
proposed that with sufficiently accurate knowledge of their orbits one could use
their positions as a universal clock, and so measure longitude.
 Lessons from Galileo’s astronomical observations:
1. Scientific progress depends on technical improvements and innovation.
You cannot make accurate scientific measurements without instruments !
2. When a technical breakthrough does happen, such as the invention of the
telescope, scientific progress can be very rapid.
3. It is usually the first person who has access to new instruments who makes
the exciting discoveries.
Galileo - the telescope

 However, no-one is perfect… 32

 Galileo dismissed the idea by Johannes Kepler, that the moon caused the tides.
 Galileo also refused to accept Kepler's elliptical orbits of the planets,
considering the circle the "perfect" shape for planetary orbits. Even the best and
most revolutionary minds can held back by traditional knowledge and
opinions.
 From his studies of inertia Galileo incorrectly thought that moving objects tend
to keep moving in a circle, not in a straight line (as Newton would have it).
 Even so….
 Galileo's theoretical and experimental work in physics on the motions of
bodies, along with the largely independent work of Kepler and René
Descartes, underpinned the classical mechanics developed by Isaac
Newton.
 He was a pioneer in performing rigorous experiments and insisting on a
mathematical description of the laws of nature.
Galileo Galilei - Physics
33
 Aristotle taught that heavy objects fall faster than light ones, in direct
proportion to weight. This seems logical – a big thing looks as though it
should fall quicker than a small thing.
 As often with Greek philosophy the problem was that no-one had
ever taken the trouble to actually test this.
 Not until Galileo, who is said to have dropped balls of different
masses from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to demonstrate that their time
of descent was independent of their mass (excluding the effect of air
resistance).
 This story is probably not true, but he did prove it in other ways. He did
perform experiments involving rolling balls down inclined planes
which proved the same thing: falling or rolling objects are
accelerated independently of their mass.
 He also determined the correct mathematical law for constant
acceleration - the total distance covered, starting from rest, is
proportional to the square of the time.
Galileo Galilei - inertial movement
34
will slow down

Will not change speed

Of course, only if friction is negligible.

will get faster
Feather & Hammer Drop on Moon
35
Galileo - the Church
36
 Although he tried to remain loyal to the Catholic Church, Galileo's adherence to
his experimental results and their honest interpretation, led to his rejection of
authority, both philosophical and religious, in matters of science.
 This helped separate science from philosophy and religion, a major
development in human thought.
 On a personal level, he seems to have been vain, arrogant and argumentative,
this did not help matters.
 Galileo’s trial for heresy in 1633 has stood as the defining encounter between
church and science, which still casts a shadow today.
 It is worth looking in more detail at what actually happened and why Galileo got
in such trouble.
 It is not, as usually stated, because he advocated the heliocentric model, this
had been discussed and supported by many others during and before the time
of Galileo, including Jesuit astronomers.
 This was tolerated by the Church as a working hypothesis, not absolute fact
(remember the preface to Copernicus’ book).
Galileo - the Church
37
 It was reasonable to discuss both models, because there were genuine problems
with establishing the validity of the heliocentric model:
 The missing stellar parallax
 Is looking through a telescope as reliable as direct vision?
 The church took the reasonable view that if genuine proof were provided then
indeed the scriptures should and would be re-interpreted.
 But Galileo insisted heliocentrism was an absolute fact, and the interpretation of
the bible must change. He argued Augustine's position, which was not to take
every passage in the Bible and scriptures literally, particularly when the scripture in
question is a book of poetry and songs:
Psalm 93:1, “…the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved."
Psalm 104:5, “…set the earth on its foundations; it can never be
moved."
Ecclesiastes 1:5, "the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to
where it rises."
Galileo Galilei - the Church
38
 In 1615 (in a letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, he wrote that “
… if truly demonstrated, physical conclusions need not be subordinated to biblical
passages, but the latter must rather be shown not to interfere with the former, then before
a physical proposition is condemned it must be shown to be not rigorously demonstrated
by those who judge it to be false.”
 He has shifted the burden of proof. It is no longer Galileo’s task to prove the
Copernican system but the Church’s job to disprove it.
 It is this suggestion of the subordination of the primal role of the scriptures which resulted
in serious trouble for Galileo.
 His opinions on the motion of the Earth were denounced as dangerous and close to
heresy.
 He went to Rome to defend himself against these accusations, but, in 1616, the Catholic
Church prohibited him from advocating or teaching Copernican astronomy as absolute
fact.
Galileo Galilei - the Church
39

 In 1632, he published his book “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”.
 This was a disaster: He was still strongly supporting Copernican astronomy as established
fact, and also because (more importantly!) it was interpreted as directly ridiculing the
Pope.
 In October of that year he was ordered to appear before the Inquisition and was put
on trial for heresy in 1633.
 Galileo had to recant his heliocentric ideas. He did this, otherwise there was a strong
chance he would have burned as a heretic.
 He was imprisoned; the sentence was later commuted to house arrest for the rest of his
life.
 His offending book was banned; and in an action not announced at the trial,
publication of any of his works was forbidden, including any he might write in the future.
 Galileo was officially pardoned in 1992, 359 years after his trial…..
The Revolution moves northward
40
 After the treatment of Bruno and Galileo it is hardly surprising that people in Italy
were afraid to speak out against any of the teachings of the Catholic Church.
 So, in the country where the Renaissance had started, further scientific
development practically stopped.
 However, Northern Europe was now mainly Protestant and so somewhat more
at liberty to think and question, since it was not under the control of the Catholic
Church.
 This is not to say that there were not religious problems and wars, but there was
more freedom to speak one’s mind and work on experiments related to the
workings of the natural world.
 So our story on the Scientific Revolution which started in southern Europe in Italy
with the Renaissance and Galileo moves further north, to England, France,
Germany and Holland.
Foundation of the Scientific Societies
41
 From 1645 onwards, a group of like-minded people began to meet regularly in
London to discuss new ideas and communicate new discoveries.
 In 1662, this became the Royal Society, under the official patronage of the
English king Charles II. This provided plenty of respectability for science, but not
any money. Individual members had to be wealthy enough to undertake their
own experiments, pay for publication of their work etc.
 In 1666, the French Academie des Sciences was founded under the official
patronage of the French king Louis XIV. This was funded by the government so it
was able to provide financial support and facilities to its members – a much
better arrangement !
 The success of these two societies led to many others being founded across
Europe, starting with the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin, in 1700.
 These societies made it possible for new discoveries and ideas to be discussed
and circulated - a vital part of scientific progress.
 René Descartes (1595-1650)
 A French mathematician, scientist and philosopher and a key figure in the 42
Scientific Revolution.
 A dualist: there are two types of things in the world :
- res cogitans (thinking stuff): this has consciousness (Souls, God), thinks, is
alive.
- res extensa (extended stuff): everything else, which fills the world: There
can be no void (as in Aristotle), every space is filled with matter in
different forms, and “empty spaces” are filled by a ‘universal fluid’, the
Aether. This led him to dismiss the idea of atoms. Then no movement is
possible, except in circles, so eddies (vortices) fill the world. The solar
system is one great vortex; this explains the motions of the planets.

 The world is completely de-animated, everything follows mechanical rules:

animals are machines.
 Everything is calculable, under the mathematical rules that govern direct
collisions between particles: mechanical philosophy.
 Descartes’ division of body and soul has become deeply ingrained, most
people find it difficult to think any other way.
René Descartes (1595-1650)
43
 His influence in science was profound. He insisted that the natural world
can be understood in terms of basic physical quantities which obey
mechanistic, predictable laws that can be determined from experiment.
 From his studies of inertia he stated that moving objects tend to keep
moving in a straight line, not in a circle as Galileo had thought. From this he
first described the law of conservation of momentum.
 Planets are carried around the sun by swirling vortices of the universal fluid,
like wood chips in a stream.
 Another reason why Descartes needed the aether is as a medium to
transmit both light and gravity, since he had no concept of forces acting
‘at a distance.’
 He believed that white light was “pure” and that individual colours result
from white light travelling at a different speed.
 Descartes influence on science in the decades after his death was so
strong that France and some other parts of Europe were reluctant to
accept Newton’s theory on gravity and planetary motions because there
was such an ‘action at a distance’: Gravity .
 Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)
44
 Newton was a mathematician and physicist who laid the foundations
for modern physics.
 He made many very significant contributions to science in calculus, light
and optics, often regarded as the most important figure in science.
 It is his work on gravity and the laws of motion for which he is most
famous.
 In mechanics, Newton described the principles of conservation of
momentum and angular momentum.
 In optics, he developed a theory of colour based on the observation
that a prism splits white light into a visible spectrum, and he invented the
reflecting telescope.
 He strongly advocated the corpuscular theory of light.
 Isaac Newton

Photograph © Andrew Dunn,

 In 1665 the plague had shut down Cambridge University, so Newton spent two 45
years working from home on circular motion and other ideas. When the
university reopened, Newton had used Kepler's laws and his own observations of
motions of the moon, the tides and even comets to develop the universal law of
gravitation.
 Newton realized that the force that makes apples fall to the ground is the same
force that makes the planets "fall" around the sun.
 He assumed a force of attraction toward the sun that scales with the inverse of
the square of the distance from the sun, now called the universal law of
gravitation.
 He showed that the shape of the orbits are ellipses, for (point-like) masses bound
by gravity, as Kepler had observed.
 A circular orbit is merely a special case of an elliptical orbit.
 22 years later, In 1687 Newton published his book ‘Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy’ (usually just called “Principia”), and at a stroke unified
celestial and terrestrial science.
 The book described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the
groundwork for classical mechanics, which dominated the scientific view of the
physical universe for most of the next three centuries.
 Isaac Newton - Principia
46
 The birth of the Principia may be traced to a discussion in 1684 at the
Royal Society. Astronomer Edmund Halley and architect Sir
Christopher Wren (St Paul's Cathedral), suspected that there was an
inverse square relation governing celestial motions based on Kepler's
Third Law of elliptical orbits, but could not prove it.
 They brought the question before Newton's arch rival Robert Hooke,
who claimed that he could prove the inverse square law and all three
of Kepler's laws. His claim was met with scepticism, and Wren offered
a forty-shilling book as a prize for the correct proof within a two-month
limit.
 Hooke failed to produce the promised calculation (he was truly a
genius, but not in a mathematical sense), so Halley travelled to
Cambridge to ask for Newton's opinion.
 Newton said with a typical lack of interest in work that he had already
completed, that he had already solved this problem some time ago.
Isaac Newton - Principia
47
 However, he could not find the calculation among his papers and promised to
send Halley a proof. Halley, suspecting the same bogus claim he had received
from Hooke, left frustrated and returned to London.
 Three months later he received a nine page treatise from Newton, written in
Latin, De Motu Corporum, or On the Motions of Bodies in Orbit.
 In this paper, Newton gave a correct proof of Kepler's laws in terms of an
inverse square law of gravitation and his three laws of motion.
 A delighted Halley suggested publication, but Newton, reluctant to appear in
print, refused. At Halley's insistence, Newton finally began writing and, with
typical thoroughness, worked for 18 months revising and rewriting the short
paper until it grew into three volumes.
Isaac Newton - Principia
48
 The Royal Society, having exhausted available funds on an extravagant
edition of De Historia Piscium, or The History of Fishes, could not pay for the
publication and so it was at Edmund Halley's expense that Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica was finally published.
 Halley was not always wealthy, and after this episode, he was forced by
circumstances to take a paid post as secretary to the Royal Society.
 The Royal Society, also hard-up for money, was forced to pay Halley for his
service in kind by offering him all their spare copies of The History of Fishes !
Principia – Preface I
49
“…we consider chiefly those things which relate to gravity, levity, elastic
force, the resistance of fluids, and the like forces, whether attractive or
impulsive; and therefore we offer this work as the mathematical principles of
philosophy; for all the difficulty of philosophy seems to consist in this – from
the phenomena of motions to investigate the forces of nature, and then
from these forces to demonstrate the other phenomena; and to this end the
general propositions in the first and second book are directed.
In the third book we give an example of this in the explication of the System
of the World; for by the propositions mathematically demonstrated in the
former books, we in the third derive from the celestial phenomena the forces
of gravity with which bodies tend to the sun and the several planets. Then
from these forces, by other propositions which are also mathematical, we
deduce the motions of the planets, the comets, the moon, and the sea.
Principia – Preface II
50

I wish we could derive the rest of the phenomena of nature

by the same kind of reasoning from mechanical principles;
for I am induced by many reasons to suspect that they
may all depend upon certain forces by which the particles
of bodies, by some causes hitherto unknown, are either
mutually impelled towards each other, and cohere in
regular figures, or are repelled and recede from each
other; which forces being unknown, philosophers have
hitherto attempted the search of nature in vain; but I hope
the principles here laid down will afford some light either to
this or some truer method of philosophy. “
Principia – Laws of Motion
51
First Law
Every body continues in a state of rest, or of uniform
motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change
that state by forces impressed upon it.
 Second Law
The change of motion (linear momentum) is proportional
to the force applied, and is in the direction of the
straight line in which that force is applied.
 Third Law
To every action there is always an equal and opposite
reaction; or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon
each other are always equal, and act in opposite
directions.
Newtons geometrical method: Connection of Mathematics and Physics
52
 Mathematics has no “forces”, as Newton’s
physics has. But it is useful, eg.:
 First a quick reminder: Triangle area, h
 The area of any triangle can be calculated
from: b
ℎ×𝑏
𝐴=
2

 Because we can construct a parallelogram with twice the area, and then show
that it has the area of a rectangle with sides h and b, just h×b:

b b
 1. approximate
Example of a 3. If there is no
true orbit true orbit
geometrical proof by force: triangles
Newton: Kepler II
C by a polygon.
have again
D 53
2. Kepler II says:
implies a central equal area.
triangles have
force
equal area.
2nd second B 2nd second B

1st second 1st second

A A
S S

4. So both upper triangles D

(SCB and SBD above) have 5. So the movement (with force) is
equal area, and share SB,
C D
BC, and it is the sum of BD (inertia,
therefore the hight CB is without force) and EB (due to
equal to the height ED, and gravity, which is towards S, ie
BE is parallel to CD. E
E central. B
B
S
S
Newton & religion I “Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last
of the magicians …” - John Maynard Keynes
54
 More than any other scientist, Newton’s work on gravitation and his universal laws of
It is maybe
motion did immense damage to the standing of the church. No more need to interesting that
invoke god to explain the motion of the planets, it could be explained using gravity has many
mathematical equations and proofs. attributes of the
monotheistic god.
 If there was a natural law for motion and gravity, maybe there were others which
would do away with the need for an all-powerful god in other areas ?
 It is maybe ironic that Newton was a very religious person. He seems to have been
an Arian, that is, he rejected the church's doctrine of the Trinity (he was employed as
a Professor at Trinity College, Cambridge) – So he had to keep his own religious views
secret.
 Newton wrote more on religion, the Bible, the early Church Fathers, the Scriptures
and on Alchemy than he did on natural sciences. It dominated his thinking in the
second half of his life.
 He also attempted to find hidden messages within the Bible. Despite his focus on
theology and alchemy, Newton tested and investigated these ideas using scientific
methods, observing, hypothesizing, and testing his theories.
 To Newton, his scientific and religious experiments were one and the same, observing
and understanding how the world functioned.
 Newton & religion II
55
 Deism is a philosophical position taken by many intellectuals during the 17th and 18th
century in Britain, France, Germany and the USA.
 Raised as Christians, they believed in one God but started to doubt organized religion
and notions such as the Trinity, the literal truth of the Bible and the believe in miracles.
 Deism asserts, roughly, that there is a god, but he (or she, but that possibility was not
taken into account then) does not interfere directly with the world, letting the universe
run along natural laws.
 Revelations are rejected as a source of religious knowledge, reason and observation of
the natural world are considered sufficient to determine the existence of a single creator
of the universe.
 Newton warned explicitly against such a view, he saw God as the masterful creator
whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation:
For while comets move in very eccentric orbs in all manner of positions, blind fate could
never make all the planets move one and the same way in orbs concentric, some
inconsiderable irregularities excepted which may have arisen from the mutual actions of
comets and planets on one another, and which will be apt to increase, till this system
wants a reformation.
 Newton, Leibniz and Calculus I
56
 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German logician, mathematician and
natural philosopher
 He is considered a champion of the rationalist philosophy (we will meet him again
in lecture 8).
 Leibniz’ thought that God would make “the best of all possible” worlds, requiring
no further intervention. He wrote, in a letter to his friend Caroline of Ansbach:

Sir Isaac Newton and his followers have also a very odd opinion concerning the
work of God. According to their doctrine, God Almighty wants to wind up his
watch from time to time: otherwise it would cease to move. He had not, it seems,
sufficient foresight to make it a perpetual motion
.
Newton, Leibniz and Calculus II (skip to movie)
57
 In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Leibniz for developing
calculus. Most historians believe that Newton and Leibniz developed
calculus independently, using their own unique notations.
 According to Newton's supporters, he had worked out his method years
before Leibniz, yet he published almost nothing about it until 1693, and did
not give a full account until 1704.
 This was also the year when he published his book ‘Optics’ (discussed under
Robert Hooke). One of Newton’s motives in this book was to establish his
case that he had discovered calculus before Leibniz, and Leibniz had stolen
his main ideas.
 Meanwhile, Leibniz began publishing a full account of his methods in 1684.
Moreover, Leibniz's notation and "differential Method" were universally
adopted on the Continent, and after 1820 or so (i.e. much later), in Britain.
 Newton, Leibniz and Calculus II (skip to movie)
58
 In 1699 other members of the Royal Society (of
which Newton became president) accused
Leibniz of plagiarism, and a major dispute
erupted in 1711.
 The Royal Society proclaimed in a study that it
was Newton who was the true discoverer and
labelled Leibniz a fraud. This study was cast into
doubt when it was later found that Newton
himself wrote the study's concluding remarks on
Leibniz.
 Thus began the bitter Newton v. Leibniz calculus
controversy, which marred the lives of both
Newton and Leibniz until the latter's death in
1716. This dispute created a divide between
British and Continental mathematicians that Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
slowed progress in Britain by at least a century. (courtyard of Oxford University)
The Calculus Controversy

59
Newton
60
 For the last 30 years of his life, Newton was in charge on the London Mint,
responsible for the quality (and gold content) of all new coins.
 This was part of a revolution in British banking and finance which made the
currency internationally strong and widely accepted.
 We have mentioned how insecure, quarrelsome and unscrupulous Newton
could be, in his dealings with other scientists such as Leibniz and Hooke (see
below).
 Actually, he was just plain not a very nice person. He was strongly in favour of
capital punishment for forgers of coins, advocating and convicting people
to the worst punishment possible of ‘hanging, drawing & quartering”.
 Newton was the first scientist who was ‘knighted’. However, this was not for
his achievements in science ! It was the usual party politics, since Newton
was also a Member of Parliament.
 Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703) I
61
 Hooke was brilliant English scientist in many fields, he played an important role in the scientific
revolution in both experimental and theoretical work.
 He was England's equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci, a true Renaissance man who was constantly
seeking answers to questions, and inventing new and ingenious scientific instruments.
 His work in microscopy and Astronomy were truly brilliant.
 He is one of the most under-rated natural philosophers of all time. This is mainly because he lived
at the same time as Newton, and had a bad controversy with the great man.
 Hooke coined the biological term cell, because his observations of plant cells reminded him
of monks' cells which were called "cellula." He is often credited with the discovery of the
cell, although his microscope was very basic.
 Hooke's microscope design was utilized by the Dutchman Anton van Leeuwenhoek,
described as the father of microbiology.
 Hooke also became the Surveyor to the City of London and chief assistant of Christopher
Wren, helping to rebuild London after the Great Fire in 1666.
Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703) II
 Micrographia is one of the most significant books ever published as 62
it established the foundation of using microscopy to advance
biological science.
 Hooke's observations at the microscope were extensive and
detailed - many led other notable scientists to engage their interest
in his findings.
 He was an excellent artist so could reproduce what he saw in the
microscope on paper.
 Hooke suggested a wave theory of light in his Micrographia and
later suggested (correctly) that the vibrations in light might be
perpendicular to the direction of propagation.

Hooke's drawing
of a flea and a
dust mite from
Micrographia
Hooke & Newton – Gravity
63
 Much that is credited to Newton’s work on motion and gravity may actually originate
from Hooke. Hooke was no mathematician whereas Newton was a brilliant one, and
able to establish elegant proofs whereas Hooke went on his intuition.
 In his book published in 1674 ‘Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth’, Hooke
offered a theory of planetary motion based on the correct principle of inertia and a
balance between an outward centrifugal force and an inward gravitational
attraction to the Sun.
 In 1679, in a letter to Newton, he suggested that this attraction would vary inversely as
the square of distance from the Sun.
 He was initially credited with this early work in Newton’s book Principia, published in
1684. However, Hooke protested to Newton that he should have more credit for other
work as well.
 In a fury, Newton removed all references to Hooke’s work from the entire book.
Hooke & Newton - Newton’s Optics
64

 Newton finished this book ‘Optics’ in 1704, twenty years after he wrote it,
and just one year after the death of Robert Hooke. The reason for this (is
thought to be) that so much what it contained was based on Hooke’s
earlier work and Newton’s did not want to give any credit to him.
 Hooke observed coloured rings around the central areas of mica sheets
pressed together - attracting Newton's interest and ultimately contributing
to what were later called 'Newton's Rings'. This was almost certainly stolen
from Hooke.
What did Hooke look like ?
65
 Why are there no portraits, pictures or statues of him, as there are for
every other major scientific figure ?
 When the Royal Society moved headquarters, with Newton as
president, all the delicate scientific equipment, papers, portraits of
members were carefully packed up and transferred.
 Nothing was lost…..except for every single picture and statue of
Robert Hooke.
 It is thought that Newton took this opportunity to further remove any
reference to his closest scientific competitor in the fields of gravity
and optics.
 Today, Newton is widely regarded as the most influential scientist in
history, and all we hear of Robert Hooke is the theory of elasticity
(Hooke’s Law).
Christian Huygens - (1629 - 1695) Clocks

 He was a Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist. 66

 His interest in accurate timekeeping arose through his desire to
make accurate astronomical observations at the same time
each day, and also for navigation at sea.
 Building on earlier designs (13th C verge escapements and
Galileo’s improvements), his invention in 1656 of the pendulum
clock), was a breakthrough in timekeeping.
 Unlike Galileo’s design, Huygens’ pendulum clock was rugged
and practical and was soon in widespread use across Europe.
 It was still not rugged enough to work at sea, which was a major
problem of this age.
 It is thanks to Huygens that ordinary people had access to
Animation showing
accurate timekeepers in their village church clocks, rather than operation of an anchor
relying on the position of the sun. escapement

 Increased the accuracy of clocks enormously, from about 15 Better, more complex
(deadbeat) designs will
minutes per day to 15 seconds per day not move backwards at
every cycle
 In 1675, he also patented the pocket watch.
 Christian Huygens - Wave Theory of Light
67
 He is also famous for his comprehensive theory of light, published in 1690 in his
book “Traite de la Lumiere” (Treatise on Light). He proposed a wave theory of
light, and in particular demonstrated how waves might interfere to form a wave
front, propagating in a straight line.
 This theory was soon overshadowed by Isaac Newton's corpuscular theory of
light, i.e. that light consisted of small particles. Such was the standing and awe of
Newton at this time that his particle theory of light went essentially unchallenged
for over a century, though Huygens’ work was, for a time, accepted as being a
better description.
 In modern Quantum Mechanics both theories are partially conserved.
 Huygens’ theory of light also predicted that light must travel at a finite speed.
Before this, nearly everyone thought it travelled infinitely fast. This was proved
correct and the speed of light was first measured in 1679 by Ole Römer and
Giovanni Cassini in Paris, using observations of Jupiters’s moons.
Edmund Halley (1656 – 1742)
68

 Edmund Halley was a hugely talented multidisciplinary scientist and was largely
responsible for persuading Newton to publish the Principia.
 Mapping the Southern Skies: In 1676, he visited St. Helena (in the south Atlantic)to
observe stars from the Southern Hemisphere. He published these observations in
Catalogus Stellarum Australium, where his discovery of 341 previously unknown stars
earned him comparison with Tycho.
 In 1718 he discovered the proper motion of the "fixed" stars by comparing his
astrometric measurements with those given in Ptolemy's Almagest.
 Arcturus and Sirius were had moved significantly: Sirius had moved 30 arc minutes
(about the diameter of the moon) southwards in 1800 years.
 Halley’s Comet
69
 Halley's analysis of the orbit of what we now call Halley's comet is another
example of the scientific method in action.
 He observed that the comets of 1456, 1531, 1607 and 1682 followed similar
orbital paths around the Sun and that each appearance was about 76 years
after the last - the period predicted for the orbit by Kepler's Third Law.
 He then predicted that the comet would return again in 1758. The comet was
sighted on schedule on Christmas Day 1758

Contributions in Other Fields

 He was also a very important figure in other scientific developments,

such as accurate measurement of longitude.
 He was a Royal Navy sea captain, then Professor of Mathematics at
Oxford University (and the only sea captain ever to do so.)
 Halley & the Transit of Venus
70
 In 1716 Halley suggested a high-precision measurement of the distance between the
Earth and the Sun (in km) was possible by timing the transit of Venus (that is, when Venus
passes across the face of the Sun and is visible from Earth as a small black dot).
 This is a fine example of the use of triangulation to measure a huge distance (remember
Thales ?)

From the known distance between

observers on Earth and the angle p
one can calculate the Earth –Venus
p distance, and with Kepler’s third law
the Earth-Sun distance.

 Although the original idea was not his, it was his authority which led to it being taken
seriously. The problem is that transits of Venus happen rarely, with pairs of transits eight
years apart separated by long gaps of over 100 years.
 After Halley’s suggestion, the next transit pair were in 1761 and 1769 (long after his death
in 1742).
Halley & the Transit of Venus
71
 In 1761 numerous expeditions were sent out to various
parts of the world in order to observe these transits.
 This was an early example of international scientific
collaboration and an indication of how widespread
scientific enthusiasm and the quest for knowledge was
becoming.
 For the 1769 transit scientists travelled to many places,
including to Tahiti (Captain James Cook’s first voyage).
 In 1771, using the combined 1761 and 1769 transit
data, the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande
calculated the Earth-Sun distance to be 153 million
kilometres (±1 million km). A superbly accurate
measurement.
The transit of Venus in 2004
 Modern measurement techniques have allowed a
precise value to be calculated to an accuracy of
±30 meters.