"In the century from Copernicus to Newton, the understanding of the universe had been transformed. The Earth had been firmly dislodged from its position of celestial preeminence at the center of the Ptolemaic universe. The nature of the orbits of the planets had been revealed by the masterful observations of Tycho and their ingenious interpretation by Kepler. The failure to detect parallax in stars was accepted as an indication that they must be at vast distances beyond the solar system, such that any parallax would be too small to be measurable with current instruments. Galileo introduced the telescope and produced observations that provided validations of the new ideas. And the genius of Newton brought forth the reflecting telescope, new laws of motion, and an understanding of the fundamentals of optics. It also delivered the theory of universal gravitation, which explained the motions of the planets and identified the primary force in shaping the universe. Real science now had its firm foundation."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
David H. Clark & Matthew D. H. Clark, Measuring the Cosmos: How Scientists Discovered the Dimensions of the Universe (2004)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Scientific_revolution
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Scientific revolution
73 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Scientific revolution →
Related Quotes
"In... "The Portuguese Discoveries and the Rise of Modern Science", Prof. Hooykaas supported the thesis "That the Port…"
"The modern origins of empirical scientific knowledge lie in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This time period…"
"Perhaps there is no literature in Europe that mirrors so clearly as the Portuguese, the painful conflict in the minds…"
"Concerning ourselves we speak not; but as touching the matter which we have in hand, this we ask;—that men deem it no…"
"[L]ong ago have those doctrines been exploded of the Force of the First Mover and the Solidity of the Heaven,—the sta…"
"Though Lavoisier generally gets credit for the authorship of this principle [ conservation of mass ], others had conc…"
"In Newton's time only two kinds of force were available for quantitative investigation. One was the force of gravity;…"
"During medieval times, men accepted Ptolemy's view that the earth was the natural center of the universe. ...[A]dapti…"
"The credit of first using the telescope for astronomical purposes is almost invariably attributed to Galilei, though …"
"Galileo had the experience of beholding the heavens as they actually are for perhaps the first time, and wherever he …"