GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN

MODERN AGES

Overview this marked the

beginning of
The Modern Age, or modernity, is the post massive changes
medieval era, a wide span of time marked in the world.
in part by technological innovations,
urbanization, scienti c discoveries, and Though less
globalization. The Modern Age is generally political, the
split into two parts: the early and the late Industrial
Overview
modern periods. Revolution had
Objectives
equally far-
The early modern period began with reaching
Gutenberg’s invention of the movable type consequences. It
printing press in the late 15th century and did not merely Renaissance
ended in the late 18th century. Thanks to change the way
Gutenberg’s press, the European goods were
population of the early modern period saw produced—it also The Medici
rising literacy rates, which led to Family
fundamentally
educational reform. Gutenberg’s machine changed the
also greatly enabled the spread of economic, social,
knowledge and, in turn, spurred the and cultural Renaissance
Humanism
Renaissance and the Protestant framework of its
Reformation. During the early modern time. The
Francesco
period, transportation improved, politics Industrial Petrarch
became more secularized, capitalism Revolution
spread, nation-states grew more powerful, doesn’t have clear Giovanni
and information became more widely start or end dates. Boccaccio
accessible. Enlightenment ideals of reason, However, during
rationalism, and faith in scienti c inquiry the 19th century, Renaissance Art
slowly began to replace the previously several crucial
dominant authorities of king and church. inventions—the Leonardo da
internal Vinci
Huge political, social, and economic combustion
changes marked the end of the 18th engine, steam- Michelangelo
century and the beginning of the late powered ships,
modern period. During the late modern and railways, Donatello
period, the Industrial Revolution began in among others—
England at around 1759 and combined led to innovations Raphael
with the American Revolution in 1776 and in various
the French Revolution in 1789. Eventually, industries.

For SLSU use only 23

fi
fi
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you should be able
to
➡ outline the key events that occurred
during the early and late modern
ages.
➡ discuss the scienti c ideas of some
early scientists such as Copernicus,
Lecture Notes
Early Modern Ages. It also referred to as
the post-medieval period, is the period
of European history between the end of
the Middle Ages and the beginning of
the Industrial Revolution, roughly the late
15th century to the late 18th century. The
beginning and end of the early modern
period are marked by important changes
in ideas, society, religion, economics and
politics.
During the early modern period, which
included what some have labeled the
Scienti c Revolution, the social and
intellectual barriers that divided the
mechanical arts from what was sometimes
being labeled science continued to be
overcome. Building on inventions, such as
the printing press, gunpowder, and new
navigational techniques that had
originated in the late Middle Ages, the
early modern period saw a dramatic
expansion of world trade and commercial
activity that some have labeled a
commercial revolution.
Scienti c Revolution. It was a series of
events that marked the emergence of
For SLSU use only
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES
Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and Newton
about the motion of the planets and
other heavenly bodies.
➡ understand the impact of Industrial
Revolution in the current situation of
our society.
➡ describe the technological inventions
during the Industrial Revolution.
modern science during the early modern
period, when developments in
mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology
(including human anatomy) and chemistry
transformed the views of society about
nature.
It is a
drastic
change in
scienti c
thought
that took
place
during the
16th and
17th centuries. A new view of nature
emerged during the Scienti c Revolution,
replacing the Greek view that had
dominated science for almost 2,000 years.
Science became an autonomous
discipline, distinct from both philosophy
and technology, and it came to be
regarded as having utilitarian goals. By the
end of this period, it may not be too much
to say that science had replaced
Christianity as the focal point of European
civilization.
24
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
The change to the medieval idea of
science occurred for the following
reasons:
1. Seventeenth century scientists and
philosophers were able to collaborate
with members of the mathematical and
astronomical communities to effect
advances in all elds.
2. Scientists realized the inadequacy of
medieval experimental methods for
their work and so felt the need to
devise new methods (some of which
we use today).
3. Academics had access to a legacy of
European, Greek, and Middle Eastern
scienti c philosophy that they could
use as a starting point (either by
disproving or building on the
theorems).
Among the formally educated, if not
among the general population, traditional
science was transformed by the new
heliocentric, mechanistic, and
mathematical conceptions of Copernicus,
Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. Historians of
science are increasingly reluctant to
describe these changes as a revolution,
since this implies too sudden and
complete an overthrow of the earlier
model. Aristotle’s authority gave way very
slowly, and only the rst of the great
scientists mentioned above did his work in
the period under consideration. Still, the
Renaissance made some important
contributions toward the process
of paradigm shift, as the 20th-century
historian of science Thomas Kuhn called
major innovations in science. Publication
of Copernicus’s heliocentric theory in
For SLSU use only
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES
1543 is a good beginning point for the
Scienti c Revolution. Throughout the
West, modern science began to take
shape in many ways.
Nicholaus Copernicus (1473-1543). He
was born on February 19, 1473 in Torun, a
city in north-
central Poland .
Copernicus was
born into a family
of well- to-do
merchants, and
after his father’s
death, his uncle–
soon to be a
bishop–took the boy under his wing. He
was given the best education of the day
and bred for a career in canon (church)
law. At the University of Krakow, he studied
liberal arts, including astronomy and
astrology, and then, he was sent to Italy to
study medicine and law. Copernicus later
studied at the University of Padua and in
1503 received a doctorate in canon law
from the University of Ferrara. He returned
to Poland, where he became a church
administrator and doctor. In his free time,
he dedicated himself to scholarly pursuits,
which sometimes included astronomical
work.
Toward the close of 1542, Copernicus was
seized with apoplexy and paralysis. He was
presented with the nal printed pages of
his De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
(On the Revolutions of the Celestial
Spheres) on the very day that he died,
allowing him to take farewell of his life's
work. He is reputed to have awoken from a
stroke-induced coma, looked at his book,
and then died peacefully, at the age of 70,
in 1543.
25
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
Copernican Theory. Sometime between
1508 and 1514, Nicolaus Copernicus
wrote a short astronomical treatise
commonly called the Commentariolus, or
“Little Commentary,” which laid the basis
for his heliocentric (sun-centered) system.
The work was not published in his lifetime.
In the treatise, he correctly postulated the
order of the known planets, including
Earth, from the sun, and estimated their
orbital periods relatively accurately.
For Copernicus, his heliocentric theory
was by no means a watershed, for it
created as many problems as it solved. For
instance, heavy objects were always
assumed to fall to the ground because
Earth was the center of the universe. Why
would they do so in a sun-centered
system? He retained the ancient belief that
circles governed the heavens, but his
evidence showed that even in a sun-
centered universe the planets and stars
did not revolve around the sun in circular
orbits. Because of these problems and
others, Copernicus delayed publication of
his major astronomical work, De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium Libri
VI, or “Six Books Concerning the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs,” nearly
all his life.
According to
Copernicus’
heliocentric
theory, the Earth
and the planets
revolve around
the sun and while
revolving around
the sun, Earth, he
argued, spins on its axis daily. Earth takes
one year to orbit the sun and during this
time wobbles gradually on its axis, which
For SLSU use only
fl
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES
accounts for the precession of the
equinoxes. Major aws in the work include
his concept of the sun as the center of the
whole universe, not just the solar system,
and his failure to grasp the reality of
elliptical orbits, which forced him to
incorporate numerous epicycles into his
system, as did Ptolemy. With no concept of
gravity, Earth and the planets still revolved
around the sun on giant transparent
spheres.
Copernicus remained loyal to the
Ptolemaic tools and used the spheres in
order to explain the movements of the
stars. He also thought that the movements
of the planets are composed of a number
of uniform circular movements, which
eventually create a non-circular path.
Copernicus was obliged to abandon the
idea that the planets are made of a special
material, ether, because for him the earth
itself is a planet and is obviously not made
of ether. He claimed that the movements
of the planets are uniform and circular
because of their spherical shape.
In 1514, Copernicus distributed a
handwritten book to his friends that set out
his view of the universe. In it, he proposed
that the center of the universe was not
Earth, but that the sun lay near it. He also
suggested that Earth's rotation accounted
for the rise and setting of the sun, the
movement of the stars, and that the cycle
of seasons was caused by Earth's
revolutions around it. Finally, he (correctly)
proposed that Earth's motion through
space caused the retrograde motion of the
planets across the night sky (planets
sometimes move in the same directions as
stars, slowly across the sky from night to
night, but sometimes they move in the
opposite, or retrograde, direction).
26
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
In 1539, the Protestant leader Martin
Luther denounced the new theory. The
Catholic Church disregarded Copernicus'
book until 1616, when it was included in
the "Index": A list of prohibited books. The
Catholic church even used Copernicus'
book to correct the calendar (which we still
use today). The Church did not object to
the theory so long as the book was treated
as no more than a mathematical
explanation. Which does not really claim
that the earth rotates around the sun. This
explanation also allowed Protestant
astronomers to use the theory. However,
there were other objections to the theory
that were not religious in nature. Most
astronomers and natural philosophers of
that period claimed that Copernicus'
theory was scienti cally implausible and
raised many counter claims.
1. Copernicus wrote a book that
summarizes his lifetime of
observation on planets and stars,
published just before his death. it
was called ____. (A) the sun goes
around the earth (B) on the
revolutions of celestial spheres (C)
heliocentric universe (D) why the sun
is the center
2. The theory Copernicus developed of
the cosmos, that the planets revolve
around the sun is called the ____
theory. (A) geocentric (B) heliocentric
(C) cosmocentric (D) homocentric
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). Tycho Ottesen
Brahe was born into a highly aristocratic,
very wealthy family on December 14,
1546. He was born in his parents’ large
manor house at Knutstorp, in the Danish
region of Scarnia, which is now in Sweden.
For SLSU use only
fi
fi
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES
Tycho’s father was Otte Brahe, a member
of the Royal Court. His mother was Beate
Bille, also an important aristocrat. Tycho
was the second of the couple’s 12
children. Although we usually refer to
scientists by their surnames, in some cases
we use their rst names – Galileo, for
example. This is also the case with Tycho
Brahe, who is usually referred to simply as
Tycho, pronounced ‘Teeko.’ Tycho Brahe
died aged 54 on October 24, 1601 in
Prague. His premature death was probably
caused by either a burst bladder or kidney
failure
Something remarkable happened to Tycho
in his second year of life – he was
kidnapped by his uncle and aunt, Jorgen
Brahe and Inger Oxe, when his parents
were away from home. Tycho’s uncle and
aunt were childless, and they believed that
Jorgen was entitled to a lawful son and
heir to his estates. Tycho’s natural parents
eventually agreed to this, so Tycho was
raised by his uncle and aunt as if he were
their own son. When his uncle died, Brahe
inherited his wealth. Similarly, he inherited
his biological father’s wealth when he
died. This was quite a tidy amount.
Research estimates that combined, this
wealth would be 1% of all of Denmark’s
entire wealth- not shabby at all for one
person!
27
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
In April 1566,
aged 19, Tycho
arrived back in
Germany. On a
December
evening he got
into argument
with another
Danish student
who, like him, was studying at the
University of Rostock. The cause of the
argument is not known. Sometimes it’s
claimed they were arguing about which of
them was the better mathematician, but
this is probably a myth. No doubt alcohol
played a part in the dispute – Tycho
enjoyed dining and drinking heartily. After
further disagreements, the two students
fought a duel with swords, which resulted
in Tycho losing the front of his nose and
picking up a permanent scar on his
forehead. A year later, he returned to
Denmark, where he began experimenting
with metal ttings to disguise his nose’s
dis gurement. He wore a skin-colored
metal prosthetic for the rest of his life.
At the age of 25, Tycho committed a
serious social offense; he took a woman
who was not born an aristocrat as his
partner. It was illegal for the young couple
to marry in the usual way. However,
provided they lived together for three
years, their partnership would be
recognized as a legal marriage. They did
this and became husband and wife.
Tycho’s wife was Kirsten Hansen, daughter
of a Lutheran minister. Tycho and Kirsten
had eight children, six of whom survived to
adulthood. The form of marriage between
the couple meant their children were
commoners, not entitled to enjoy any of
the privileges of the nobility. Also, they
For SLSU use only
fi
fi
fi
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES
could not inherit Tycho’s estates or his coat
of arms.
On October 13, 1601, Tycho attended a
banquet in Prague. As usual, he had plenty
to drink, but the meal carried on for a long
time. Although desperate to urinate, he
did not leave the table – it would have
been very impolite to leave the table
before the meal was formally over.
Brahe was long thought to have died from
a bladder infection after politeness kept
him from excusing himself to use the
bathroom during a royal banquet in
October 1601, causing his bladder to
rupture. However, scientists who opened
Brahe's grave in 1901 to mark the 300th
anniversary of his death claimed to nd
mercury in his remains, fueling rumors that
the astronomer was poisoned. Some even
accused a jealous Kepler of the crime.
Separately, tests revealed that Brahe's
famously "silver" prosthetic nose was
actually made out of brass.
Important natural events turned Tycho
from law to astronomy. Tycho’s interest in
astronomy began with the solar eclipse of
August 21, 1560. In Copenhagen this
eclipse was barely noticeable – less than
half of the sun was covered. The eclipse
inspired Tycho not because it was
spectacular, but because astronomers had
predicted exactly when it would happen.
Tycho was fascinated, and wanted to learn
how he too could make predictions like
this. He built his own observatory on an
island (the King of Denmark gave him the
island and some additional money just for
that purpose). Tycho named his island
observatory Uraniburg-Urania after the
muse of astronomy.
28
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
Tycho’s System.
He established a
theoretical model
of the solar
system known to
us nowadays as
Tychonic System
or Tychonian
Model Of The Solar System, which
basically combined the mathematical
bene ts of the Copernican System
(Heliocentrism) with the philosophical
bene ts of Aristotelian-Ptolemaic System
(Geocentrism).
In 1575, Brahe built an enormous
observatory in an island offered to him by
King Frederick II, where he kept
meticulous observations of the heavens.
While most astronomers only focused on
observing heavenly bodies at speci c,
unusual points in their orbits, Brahe
intently tracked them in their entire visible
orbit across the sky, creating the most
precise observations made at the time.
Brahe was extremely limited in his view of
the universe, and his observations relied
on what he could see with the naked eye.
However, Brahe was able to construct
instruments which aided these
observations. The armillary spheres (also
known as a spherical astrolabe) were able
to physically represent a model of the sky,
enabling him to develop celestial maps of
planetary movement. He made the most
accurate measurements of planetary
positions, which is especially admirable
given that it was made before the advent
of the telescope.
In Tycho's Model of solar system, the idea
of geocentrism and heliocentrism were
combined; that is, Earth is the center of the
For SLSU use only
fi
fi
fi
fi
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES
universe while the other planets within the
solar system revolve around the sun. In
order to help prove that geocentrism was
correct, Brahe extended an offer to
German astronomer Johannes Kepler to
join him In his island. This offer may have
cost Brahe his life.
1. Where did Tycho Brahe carry out his
astronomical observation?
(A) On a mountain (B) On an island
(C) In a cave (D) In a desert
2. Tycho Brahe believed that: (A) The
Earth revolved around the moon but
all the other planets around the sun.
(B) The sun revolved around the
Earth but all the other planets around
the moon. (C) The moon revolved
around the Earth but all the other
planets around the moon. (D) The
sun revolved around the Earth but all
the other planets around the sun.
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630). He was
born on December
27, 1571 in n Weil
der Stadt,
Wurttemberg, in the
Holy Roman Empire
of German
Nationality. He was
a sickly child and his
parents were poor.
But his evident
intelligence earned
him a scholarship to the University of Tubingen
to study for the Lutheran ministry. There he was
introduced to the ideas of Copernicus and
delighted in them. In 1596, while a
mathematics teacher in Graz, he wrote the rst
outspoken defense of the Copernican system,
the Mysterium Cosmographicum.
29
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

As a university student, he studied the Three Laws of Planetary Motion. Kepler

Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’
theories of planetary ordering. Copernicus
(1473-1543) believed that the sun, not the
earth, was the center of the solar system, a
theory that contradicted the prevailing
view of the era that the sun revolved
around the earth.
In 1600, Kepler went to Prague to work for
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe because
he realized that Tycho's work could settle
the question one way or the other. Tycho
assigned Kepler the task of understanding
the orbit of the planet Mars, the
movement of which t problematically into
the universe as described by Aristotle and
Ptolemy. It is believed that part of the
motivation for giving the Mars problem to
Kepler was Brahe's hope that its dif culty
would occupy Kepler while Brahe worked
to perfect his own theory of the solar
system
obtained Brahe's data after his death
despite the attempts by Brahe's family to
keep the data from him in the hope of
monetary gain. There is some evidence
that Kepler obtained the data by less than
legal means; it is fortunate for the
development of modern astronomy that
he was successful. Utilizing the voluminous
and precise data of Brahe, Kepler was
eventually able to develop the rst two
laws of planetary motion in 1609 and the
third law a decade after.His planetary laws
can be stated as follows;
The Law of Ellipses. All planets move
about the Sun in elliptical orbits, with the
center of the sun being located at one
focus.

As Tycho’s assistant, they fought

continuously, because Tycho refused to
Kepler's First Law is illustrated in the image
share his meticulous observations with
shown above. The Sun is not at the center
Kepler. These were observations which
of the ellipse, but is instead at one focus
Kepler desperately needed for his
(generally there is nothing at the other
continuing quest to establish the true
focus of the ellipse). The planet then
orbital motions of the planets. Tycho Brahe
follows the ellipse in its orbit, which means
and Johannes Kepler had totally disparate
that the Earth-Sun distance is constantly
backgrounds and temperaments. In spite
changing as the planet goes around its
of this, Tycho's painstaking and detailed
orbit. For purpose of illustration we have
observational data of the planet Mars,
shown the orbit as rather eccentric;
combined with Kepler's mathematical
remember that the actual orbits are much
genius, allowed Kepler to derive the Three
less eccentric than this.
Laws of Planetary Motion. Both Tycho and
Kepler made signi cant contributions to The Law of Equal Areas. States that the
the change in the prevailing world view of imaginary line joining the planet to the
a geocentric universe. It was the beginning Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times
of a systematic study that transformed as the planet travels around the ellipse. It
Medieval thinking – alchemy became describes the speed at which any given
chemistry and astrology led to astronomy. planet will move while orbiting the sun.

For SLSU use only 30

fi
fi
fi
fi
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

Kepler's T 12 R13
=
second T 22 R23
law is
illustrated As an illustration, consider the orbital
in the period and average distance from sun
gure at (orbital radius) for Earth and Mars as given
the right. The line joining the Sun and in the table. Observe that the T2/R3 ratio is
planet sweeps out equal areas in equal the same for Earth as it is for Mars. In fact,
times, so the planet moves faster when it is if the same T2/R3 ratio is computed for the
nearer the Sun. Thus, a planet executes other planets, it can be found that this
elliptical motion with constantly changing ratio is nearly the same value for all the
angular speed as it moves about its orbit. planets (see table). Amazingly, every
The point of nearest approach of the planet has the same T2/R3 ratio.
planet to the Sun is termed perihelion; the
point of greatest separation is Average T2
Period
termed aphelion. Hence, by Kepler's Planet Distance R3
(yr)
second law, the planet moves fastest (the (au) (yr2/au3)
orbital velocity increases) when it is near Mercury 0.241 0.39 0.98
perihelion and slowest (the orbital velocity
decreases) when it is near aphelion. Venus 0.615 0.72 1.01

The Law of Harmonies. The law states that Earth 1.00 1.00 1.00
the square of the orbital period (T2) is Mars 1.88 1.52 1.01
directly proportional to the cube of the
distance (R3) of the planet from the sun. In Jupiter 11.8 5.20 0.99
symbols, Saturn 29.5 9.54 1.00
T 2α R3 Uranus 84.0 19.18 1.00

If two quantities are proportional, we can Neptune 165 30.06 1.00

insert a proportionality constant, k, which
Pluto 248 39.44 1.00
depends on the units adopted for P and a,
and get an equation:
Using the third law, let us solve the
T 2 = k R3 following problems;
yr 2
where: k = 1 Mercury is 0.39 au away from the Sun. How
a u3 long will it take (in yrs) to complete 1
This law compares the orbital period and revolution around the sun?
radius of orbit of a planet to those of other
Given: R = 0.39 au
planets. This means to say that the ratio of
the squares of the periods of any two Required: T in yr
planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of
their average distances from the sun. In
symbols,

For SLSU use only 31

fi
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

Solution: T 2 = k R3 Now, try to solve these problems;

1. An asteroid is found and its orbital

yr 2
( au )
T = k R3 = 1 3 (0.39a u)3 semi-major axis around the Sun is
measured to be 4 A.U. What is the
period of its orbit round the Sun?
T = 0.24yr
2. An unknown planet has an average
Answer: T = 0.24yr distance away from the sun of 3.2 au.
(a) Determine the time needed (in
Here is another problem;
years) to complete one revolution
It takes 0.615 year for planet Venus to T2
around the sun. (b) Find the ratio 3 .
revolve around the sun. (a) Determine the R
average distance of Venus away from the
T2 Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). He was an
sun. (b) Determine the value of 3
R Italian physicist
Given: T = 0.615 yr and astronomer
who was born in
T2 Pisa on February
Required: (a) R (b)
R3 15, 1564 and died
Solution: on the 8th of
January 1642.
T2
(a) from the equation = k, Galileo enrolled
R3
to do a medical
T2 degree at the
R3 = , then University of Pisa
k
but never nished, instead choosing to
study mathematics.
3 T2 (0.615yr)2
R= = Galileo was very close with a beautiful
k 3 yr 2
1 woman from Venice named Marina
au 3
Gamba; together, they had two daughters
R = 0.72a u and a son. And yet, they never married,
nor even shared a home. Why not? As
T 2 (0.615yr)2 yr 2 Dava Sobel notes, it was traditional for
(b) = = 1.0
R3 (0.72a u)3 a u3 scholars in those days to remain single;
perceived class difference may also have
Answers:
played a role.
(a) R = 0.72a u
He helped open the eyes of the world to a
2 2
T yr new way of thinking about the workings of
(b) = 1.0 3
R 3 au our solar system and astronomy in
general. Galileo also introduced
experimentation into science, laying the
foundation of science as we know today.

For SLSU use only 32

fi
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

And his detailed study of motion and his

method of expressing natural events
mathematically opened the way to
Newton’s discovery of universal gravitation.

When Galileo heard about the invention of

the spyglass, a device which made distant
objects appear closer, in 1609, he used his
knowledge in mathematics and technical
skills to improve upon the spyglass and Four moons of Jupiter. https://www.reddit.com/r/space/
comments/jdfp5i/jupiter_and_the_galilean_moons/
build a telescope. Later that same year, he

Galileo's rst refracting telescope (1609), which has

an aperture of 1.5 cm, and is currently housed at the
Museo Galileo in Florence,Italy. https://
www.astronomytrek.com/top-10-in uential-optical-
telescopes-in-astronomy/ Phase of Venus. https://faculty.uca.edu/njaustin/
PHYS1401/Laboratory/venus.html

became the rst person to look at the

Moon through a telescope and make his
rst astronomy discovery. He found that the
Moon was not smooth, but mountainous
and rough - just like the Earth! He
subsequently used his newly invented
telescope in observing the skies in ways
previously not achieved. And in1610 he
made observations of four objects
surrounding Jupiter that behaved unlike
stars, these turned out to be Jupiter’s four
largest satellite moons: Io, Callisto, Europa
and Ganymede. They were later renamed
the Galilean satellites in honor of Galileo
himself. Using his telescope, he was also
able to study Saturn, observe the phases of
Venus, and study the sunspots on the Sun.
Galileo's observations strengthened his
belief in Copernicus' theory that Earth and
all other planets revolve around the sun.
Most people in Galileo's time believed that
the Earth was the center of the universe
and that the Sun and planets revolved
around it. His abrasive and outspoken
criticism of Aristotelian philosophy and his
obvious acceptance of the Copernican
worldview, particularly in his dialogue
concerning the Two Chief World Systems,
led him into serious trouble with the Roman
Catholic Church, which placed him under
house arrest for the last eight years of his
life.
The Catholic Church, which was very
powerful and in uential in Galileo's day,
strongly supported the theory of a
geocentric, or Earth-centered, universe.
After Galileo began publishing papers

For SLSU use only 33

fi
fi
fi
fl
fl
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

about his astronomy discoveries and his In 1992, under Pope John Paul II, the
belief in a heliocentric, or Sun-centered, Vatican issued an of cial statement
Universe, he was called to Rome to answer admitting that it was wrong to have
charges brought against him by the persecuted Galileo. But the statement
Inquisition (the legal body of the Catholic seemed to place most of the blame on the
Church). Early in 1616, Galileo was accused clerks and theological advisers who worked
of being a heretic, a person who opposed on Galileo’s case—and not on Pope Urban
Church teachings. Heresy was a crime for VIII, who presided over the trial. Nor was
which people were sometimes sentenced the charge of heresy overturned.
to death. Galileo was cleared of charges of
heresy, but was told that he should no
longer publicly state his belief that Earth
moved around the Sun. Galileo continued
his study of astronomy and became more
and more convinced that all planets
revolved around the Sun. In 1632, he
published a book that stated, among other
things, that the heliocentric theory of
Copernicus was correct. Galileo was once
again called before the Inquisition and this
time was found guilty of heresy. Galileo

Galileo on trial was forced to renounce his beliefs in

copernican theory and the motion of the earth. https:// Newspaper article about Pope John Paul II granting
designapplause.com/news/galileo-guilty-of-heresy- forgiveness to Galileo in 1992. https://www. ickr.com/
copernican-theory/212007/ photos/objectproject/5562877845

was sentenced to life imprisonment in

1633. Because of his age and poor health,
he was allowed to serve his imprisonment
under house arrest. Galileo died on
January 8, 1642. Galileo, buried between
Michelangelo and Machiavelli, is said to
have had his gravestone inscribed with the
words “But the Earth does move.” It’s not
true.

For SLSU use only 34

fi
fl
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Newton was
born prematurely and barely survived on
Christmas day 1642, the same year Galileo
Photo: Painting by Godfrey Kneller, [Public Domain], via
Wikimedia Commons. https://www.biography.com/
scientist/isaac-newton
died. Newton’s birthplace was his mother’s
farm house in Woolsthorpe England. His
father (Isaac Newton) died several months
before his birth. When he was 3 years old,
his mother, Hannah Ayscough, remarried a
well-to-do minister, Barnabas Smith, and
went to live with him, leaving young
Newton with his maternal grandmother. At
age 12, Newton was reunited with his
mother after her second husband died. She
brought along her three small children from
her second marriage.
By the 17th century, however, astronomers
had realized that the Earth itself was a
planet and that -- rather than being the
xed center of the universe -- it revolves
around the sun like any other planet.
Armed with this new understanding,
Newton developed an explanation of
planetary motion using the same physical
laws that apply on Earth. Newton was
convinced the planets must obey the same
For SLSU use only
fi
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES
physical laws that are observed on Earth.
This meant there must be an unseen force
acting on them. He knew from experiment
that, in the absence of an applied force, a
moving object will continue in a straight
line forever. The planets, on the other hand,
were moving in elliptical orbits. Newton
asked himself what sort of force would
make them do this. In a stroke of genius, he
realized that the answer was gravity -- the
very same force that causes an apple to fall
to the ground on Earth. Newton developed
a mathematical formulation of gravity that
explained both the motion of a falling
apple and that of the planets.
Law of Universal Gravitation. The law states
that every object in the Universe attracts
every other object with a force which is
directly proportional to the product of the
masses and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance between them. In
symbols,
m1m 2
Fg α
r2
or
m1m 2
Fg = G
r2
where: Fg = gravitational force
m1 = mass of object 1
m2 = mass of object 2
G = gravitational constant
= 6.7 x 1011 N-m2/kg2
With such a force and the laws of motion,
Newton was able to show mathematically
that the only orbits permitted were exactly
those described by Kepler’s laws. The
attractive force between all masses, is what
keeps the planets in orbit. In other words,
the Earth (and other planets) orbits the Sun
because the Sun attracts the Earth with
35
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

a large gravitational force, but the Earth
moves so quickly on a perpendicular path
to the Sun that it "escapes" from falling into
the Sun. However, the Earth does not move
fast enough to escape the Sun's pull
completely, so it orbits at a distance relative
to the magnitude of the gravitational force
and velocity it moves at.
(centripetal force) pulls them toward it. The
force of gravity causes the moving planets
to travel in elliptical orbits around the sun.
They have been circling the sun for billions
of years because other forces have been
too weak to change the orbits in any
signi cant way.

Kepler’s laws and Newton’s laws taken

together imply that the force that holds the
planets in their orbits by continuously
changing the planet’s velocity so that it
follows an elliptical path is directed toward
the Sun from the planet, and it is
proportional to the product of masses for
the Sun and planet, and it is inversely
proportional to the square of the planet-
Sun separation or distance.

The Sun's inward pull of gravity on a planet competes

Laws of Motion. These are set of three laws
that describe the motion of an object and
its relationship with the force that is acting
on it. These three laws of motion were
introduced by Isaac Newton in 1687. He
used these laws for the explanation and
investigation of the motion of many
physical objects and systems including the
pantry motion.
Law of Inertia. States that an object at rest
remains at rest and an object in motion
continues to move at a constant velocity
unless it is acted upon by an external force.
Any moving object in space has a tendency
to travel in a straight line at the same speed
forever, planets included. The planets
would be moving in straight lines due to
the centrifugal force acting upon them
which tends to pull them outside their
orbit, but the sun’s gravitational force
with the planet's tendency to continue moving in a
straight line. These two effects combine, causing the
planet to move smoothly along an intermediate path,
which continuously "falls around" the Sun. This unending
tug-of-war between the Sun's gravity and the planet's
inertia results in a stable orbit. (Fig. 1.24, Chaisson &
McMillan, Copyright Prentice Hall, 2004). https://
web.njit.edu/~gary/202/Lecture4.html
Law of Acceleration. States that the
acceleration (caused by the net force) of an
object is directly proportional to the net
force and inversely proportional to the
mass of an object. In symbols,
ΣF
aα
m
or
ΣF
a= and ΣF = m a
m

For SLSU use only 36

fi
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
In planetary motion, the net force that will
cause the planet to accelerate while
revolving in an elliptical orbit is the
gravitational force exerted by the Sun. Both
the acceleration and the net force are
directed towards the Sun-one of the foci of
the ellipse. This net force continually alters
a planet’s path, bending it towards the sun
although never directly at it. Furthermore,
the net force can cause the planet to either
speed up or slow down in addition to
changing directions. Eventually, the motion
of the planet in elliptical orbit is
characterized by changing velocity.
Elliptical Orbit of a Planet. Even moving in elliptical
motion, there is a tangential velocity and an inward
acceleration and force. In this case, both the acceleration
and force are directed towards the central body. https://
www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circles/Lesson-4/
Circular-Motion-Principles-for-Satellites
Law of Interaction. The law states that when
the rst object exerts a force on a second
object, the second will exert the same force
on the rst but in the opposite direction. In
other words, for every action there is an
equal but opposite reaction. For example, a
cat sitting on a chair exerts a downward
force on the chair from her weight; the
chair also exerts a force on the cat, holding
her up. In the same manner, the force
exerted on a planet by the sun is also “felt”
by the sun; however, because the sun is
hundreds of times more massive than the
planets, the force has barely any effect on
For SLSU use only
fi
fi
fi
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES
the sun’s motion, although it affects the
planet in a major way.
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution which began in the
late 1700s and continued to the 1800s,
changed the world. It represents the time when
home production of goods began to be
transferred to factories powered by steam and
electricity, fueled by coal and oil producing
things in mass quantities and transporting
goods faster over long distances through the
cleverness of men and women. Their creativity,
expanding of their minds, the Industrial
Revolution showed that they could take the
resources that this earth had to offer and
provide for the necessities of people around
the world. The birthplace of this revolution took
place in Great Britain where there were many
more resources such as iron ore and coal
needed to power the machines inside the
factories and industrial plants.
Great Britain was sending and selling many of
their products to the people of the United
States. However, this came to a halt due mostly
to the Embargo Act of 1807, which ended the
export and import of products from other
countries. In addition, the war of 1812 when the
U.S. went to war against Great Britain forced
America to seek ways to become more
independent and not rely on other countries for
products that they needed. The Embargo Act
and the war led to the expansion of
transportation. The ef cient and additional
37
 GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

electricity and industrial processes that The Industrial Revolution inspired many
increase the production of goods in other great inventions during the rest of the
America. The Industrial Revolution brought 19th century including telephone by
many important events and inventions. The Alexander Graham Bell in 1877, light bulb
timeline of some inventions during this by Thomas Edison in 1878 and the rst
period are listed below; gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz
in 1885. The Industrial Revolution made
Year Inventions Inventor real the dreams of what was and is
possible. Today everything we enjoyed and
Steamboat where
need, came to the great developers and
the engine was Robert
1793 inventors of the Industrial Revolution.
obtained from and Fulton
Automobiles, airplanes, cellphones and
built by James Watt.
even air conditioning and things to help us
Cotton gin live healthy long lives, better foods,
increased the speed medical advances, ways to ght disease, all
Eli
1794 of separating the
Whitney of these developments we enjoy today is
cotton seeds from
because of struggles and challenges of the
the ber.
great men and women of the Industrial
Reaper allowing Revolution.
Cyrus
1831 harvesting of grain to McCormick
be faster and cheaper.
In conclusion, the Scienti c Revolution in
Steel plow used in the Modern Ages revealed new discoveries
faster and more John and ideas from the giants of scienti c world
1837
ef cient planting and Deere
that changed the beliefs of the society; it
growing of crops.
marked a major shift on how people
Sewing machine used thought about the natural world. On the
Elias
1846 for fast production of
Howe other hand, the Industrial Revolution
clothing.
brought scienti c innovations and
Velocipede is the rst technological improvements that
commercially
contribute to the advancement in
successful two- Karl Von
1860 agriculture, industry, shipping and trading
wheeled steerable Drais
human powered and to the expansion of economy.
device.

Telegraph allowed
-END OF THE LESSON-
communication by
wire using electricity
and sending pulses of Samuel
1869
dots and dashes to Morse
communicate from
East coast to the
Mississippi.

For SLSU use only 38

fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

For SLSU use only 39

GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

For SLSU use only 40

GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

For SLSU use only 41

GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

For SLSU use only 42

GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

For SLSU use only 43

GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

For SLSU use only 44

GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

For SLSU use only 45

GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN MODERN AGES

For SLSU use only 46