"The goal of deriving all the phenomena of nature from a few basic physical laws and the axioms of mathematics had been set by Galileo... In studying curvilinear motions on the earth Galileo had found the parabola to be the basic curve. In the heavens... Kepler... had found the ellipse to be the basic curve. Why this difference? ...since parabola and ellipse are both conic sections there was the provocative suggestion that perhaps some physical law unified these related paths of motion. ... It has often happened in the history of mathematics and science that major problems remained outstanding... great minds... succeeded only in revealing the true difficulties... and in generating an atmosphere of dispair... Then a genius appeared... with ideas that seemed remarkably simple once propounded, clarified the entire situation, dispelled the confusion, restored order, and produced a new synthesis that embraced far more even than the phenomena under consideration. The genius who... picked up the torch of science dropped by Galileo, was Isaac Newton."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Morris Kline, Mathematics and the Physical World (1959)
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 …"