Robert Hatch

SUBTOPIC:

 Biographies of Scientists Related to a Beginning of the Scientific Revolution

OBJECTIVES:

The students will:

1. become acquainted with the individual accomplishments of Nicholas Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton
2. describe the reasons why the Catholic Church objected to the Copernican theory
3. research literature and also give a verbal presentation
4. become familiar with the five areas of scientific experimentation and observation

Background Information 

Four great scientists and four great lives…by researching the lives and scientifical discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, Newton and Brahe, one can draw interesting conclusions. Copernicus’ Heliocentric Theory, Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion, Newton’s law of universal gravitation and Brahe’s astrological findings are described in detail in Attachment A.

ACTIVITY #1:

Research and Presentation

2-5 class periods

MATERIALS:  

DIAGRAMS OF THE COPERNICAN, TYCHONIAN AND NEWTON UNIVERSES, EARTH SCIENCE AND WORLD HISTORY TEXTBOOKS, ADEQUATE MEDIA CENTER TIME FOR RESEARCH.

PROCEDURE:

1. Divide the class into four groups. Each group will be responsible for one of the scientists listed above. Each group should choose a chairperson to represent their group.
2. The groups are responsible for researching the following areas of information regarding the scientist for which they are responsible, such as pertinent personal information, etc.
3. Using attachment A, present to the class models, posters or drawings of the universe using the Copernican, Tychonian, or Newton’s observations.
4. Allow students ample research time in the media center.
5. The groups will give oral reports, and each member will have a part in the presentation.
6. After all reports are presented, conduct a class discussion.

Bibliography

Farah, Darls, Kortepeter. Human Experience. Merrill Publishing Co.

Mazour, Peoples, and Rabb. People and Nations. Harcourt.

Perry, Marvin. A History of the World. Houghton Mifflin.

Koestler, Arthur. The Watershed. New York: MacMillian.

* Drawings provided by Dr. Robert A. Hatch, University of Florida

Attachment A

Nicolas Copernicus

The medieval view of the universe was a combination of church teachings and the theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy, which viewed the earth as the center of the cosmos. When, in the second century AD, Ptolemy pictured the cosmos with the earth at the center, medieval thinkers accepted it and continued to believe that around the earth revolved seven “planets”– the moon, the sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Medieval astronomers believed they could see these heavenly bodies moving across the sky. This earth centered view of the universe was called the geocentric theory, and it reflected the Christian view that God had designed the universe especially for human beings.

In the 1500’s, Nicolas Copernicus came across ancient writings which argued that the sun was the center of the cosmos. This was the Heliocentric Theory. It’s name was derived from the Greek word “helios,” meaning sun. The ancient theory interested and excited Copernicus, and he began a long period of study and observation. Convinced that all known facts of astronomy were best explained by the heliocentric theory, he published his conclusions in On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543).

The book caused little excitement, largely because few people believed in the heliocentric theory. It seemed to contradict the evidence of the senses, as virtually anyone could “see” that the sun and planets moved around the earth and could “feel” that the earth was solid and not moving.

Copernicus could not test and prove the heliocentric theory with the instruments or the mathematics available. Proof had to wait for the work of two later scientists, Kepler and Galileo.

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler did his greatest work in astronomy in the early 1600’s. A brilliant mathematician, Kepler used mathematics as a tool to test the heliocentric theory of Copernicus. At fist Kepler couldn’t make it fit the observed facts, and he even calculated the problem 70 times before he discovered the error. Where Copernicus had written that the earth and other planets revolved around the sun in orbits, Kepler found that the orbits were not exact circles, but in fact ellipses. Hence, Kepler’s theory could be proven mathematically, yet it differed in an important way from those of Copernicus. 

Kepler published his own three laws of planetary motion. These laws made sense only if one accepted the Copernican view that planets revolve around the sun. Kepler’s first law was in disagreement with that idea, as it stated that the path of a planet is an ellipse rather than a circle. Kepler’s second law also stated a new idea–planets don’t always move at the same speed, but travel more quickly as they move closer to the sun. Kepler’s third law showed that there is a mathematical relationship between a planet’s distance from the sun and the time it takes to complete one orbit around the sun. All of these laws indicated that there was a mathematical order in the planetary system.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) was an English mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, who invented a new method of mathematical analysis–calculus. He accomplished this with the help of German philosopher and mathematician, Gottfried Wilheim von Leibniz. In 1687, Newton, one of the greatest scientist of all time, published Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. In it, he combined and related the contributions of Nicolas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo.

Newton explained that control of the motion of the planets was based upon the laws of force and motion. His law of universal gravitation stated the force of gravitation: gravity prevents objects from flying off the earth and holds the whole system of sun and planets together by keeping them in their orbits.

Newton’s discoveries made it possible to explain the movements of planets. According to the law of inertia, the planets moved in a straight line endlessly into space, but the gravitational pull from the mass of the sun kept the planets in place. 

In 1967, Newton published his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy which is usually called The Principia from its Latin title.

The universe is like a great clock, all of whose parts, following strict mechanical and mathematical principles, work together with perfect precision. A religious man, Newton believed God to be the creator and architect of the orderly universe.

Newton’s achievement was remarkable. Building on the discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler, he had uncovered essential laws that operate everywhere in the universe. The same forces that cause planets to move about the sun make apples fall to the ground, thus orbiting planets and falling apples follow the same laws of motion.

Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe, 1546-1601, was born in Denmark along with a twin who died at birth. He was supposedly always trying to do the work of two.

Like Renaissance artists, scientists of this time often depended on royal or wealthy patrons. Brahe worked first for the Danish king. With royal support, he built one of the earliest modern observatories, Uraniborg, which means “fortress of the skies.” Brahe agreed with part of the Copernican theory–that planets move around the sun–but still believed the sun circled the earth once a year. About 1600 Brahe began to work at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor in Prague. Johannes Kepler moved there to assist the older astronomer and published Brahe’s work after the Danish scientist’s death in 1601.

Unlike Kepler’s belief, Brahe’s belief in astrology was not derived from mysticism, which was completely alien to his domineering nature, but from stark superstition.

Brahe’s fame as the leading astronomer of his time, was the new star of 1572. In Tycho’s life, all the decisive landmarks were sky marks: the eclipse of the sun when he was fourteen (which brought him to astronomy), the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn when he was seventeen (which made him realize its insufficiencies), the new star when he was twenty-six, and the comet of 1577, five years later. Of all these, the new star, called Super Nova, was the most important. The Tychonian System was basically built on the idea that the earth was reinstated as the center of the world, the five planets were circling around the sun, and, with the sun, all revolved around the earth. This was obviously a revival of the intermediary system between those of Herakleides and Aristarchus of Samos. Tycho’s system, therefore, was a compromise between the Copernican ptolamaic and an alternative and viable world.

Brahe invited Kepler to work with him because he needed Kepler’s brilliant mind. The association between Kepler and Brahe lasted eighteen months, until Brahe’s death. 

Tycho Brahe died a rather unusual death, simply because he had over indulged in food and drink. Brahe was buried with great pomp in Prague. His coffin was carried by twelve imperial gentlemen-at-arms, preceded by his coat of arms, his golden spurs, and his favorite horse.

Two days later, Kepler was appointed to be Brahe’s successor, the Post of the Imperial Mathematician.