The Copernican

Revolution
BSAT 2A
 The Copernican Revolution
• The view about the universe, cumbersome as it was,
survived, virtually, unchallenged, for thirteen hundred years,
until the early sixteenth century.
• In 1543 the Polish astronomer and cleric Nicolaus Copernicus
had already proposed that movements in the skies could be
predicted more accurately than before if one supposes that
the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun.
• He introduced (2) two different models, the Ptolemaic model
and the Helio-Centric.
Ptolemaic Model
– belief that the earth
is at the center of the
universe with sun,
moon, and the planets
revolving around it.

Heliocentric Model
– belief that the sun is
the center of the solar
system.
 The (3) three key figure of the Copernican revolution was;
Nicolaus Copernicus - Polish
astronomer who put forth the
theory that the Sun is at rest near
the center of the Universe, and that
the Earth, spinning on its axis once
daily, revolves annually around the
Sun. This is called the heliocentric,
or Sun-centered, system
Galileo Galilei - A noted inventor,
physicist, engineer and astronomer,
Galileo was one of the greatest
contributors to the Scientific
Revolution, took up an interest in the
planetary motion, through using his
telescopes of his own design, he
discovered convincing evidence in
favor of Copernicus model.
Johannes Kepler - German astronomer
who discovered three major laws of planetary
motion, conventionally designated as follows: (1)
the planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun
at one focus; (2) the time necessary
to traverse any arc of a planetary orbit is
proportional to the area of the sector between
the central body and that arc (the “area law”);
and (3) there is an exact relationship between
the squares of the planets’ periodic times and
the cubes of the radii of their orbits (the
“harmonic law”).
• The modern science and scientific thinking today, was slowly
evolving through the years of study and research by these
people, including other through the years,
One of these, was the invention of Galileo, the telescope that
changes the views and ideas about the solar system and the
universe.
The writings, teachings and books, made by people who
contributed to the advancement and development of the
scientific revolutions, they now help the modern builders and
researchers to develop and make new things based on them.
• The controversies faces by the Copernican Revolution was that the
churchman or the Vatican itself was against the views of Copernicus,
the church had the idea that the earth is all important positions of the
universe.
• Another is, the Dialogue of the Two Chief World Systems, in which
Galileo could scarcely conceal his growing conviction that the
Copernican universe must now replace the Ptolemaic one. His
increasingly bold teachings and writings eventually led (in 1633) to
the Catholic Church’s notorious condemnation of Galileo’s new
science and to his being put under house arrest until his death in
1642.