Falling apple

The Scientific Revolution

By 20218
  • Jan 1, 1543

    Scientific Revolution Begins

  • Jan 1, 1543

    On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres is Published

    Written by Nicholas Copernicus and published during the same year of his death.
  • Jan 1, 1545

    Girolamo Cardano and Algebra

    In mathematics, Girolamo Cardano's The Great Art contained many algebraic innovations and new methods for treating equations of the third degree.
  • Period: Feb 15, 1564 to

    Lifespan of Galileo Galilei

  • Feb 16, 1564

    Galileo Galilei is Born

    Birthplace is in Pisa
  • Jan 1, 1566

    Pedro Nunez revolutionizes Sailing

    Explains the use of new instruments and how to sail on a great circle course.
  • Period: Jan 1, 1572 to Jan 1, 1573

    Tycho's Star

    A Star that burned for 18 months and caused questioning of Artistotle's theories.
  • Dec 1, 1577

    Comet of 1577

    Made famous by Tycho Brahe, and again challenging a central tenet inherited from Aristotle, that the celestial spheres were 'solid' perhaps even crystalline.

  • European Calendars Reformed

    Pope Gregory XIII suggested reform of the Julian calendar, thus leading much of Catholic Europe away from the Julian (Old Style) calendar to the Gregorian (New Style).

  • Decimals are First Used

    Idea invented by Simon Stevin .

  • Introduction to the Analytical Art

    Brilliant work on analytic geometry by Francois Viète

  • Gresham College is Founded

    London merchant Sir Thomas Gresham founded this college to provide public lectures on a variety of subjects from astronomy and geometry to concerns in medicine.

  • Giordano Bruno burned at the Stake

    Burned by the Catholic Church for supporting Copernicus's theories.

  • Galileo Galilei Demonstrates a famous Experiment

    Galileo demonstrates that a projectile follows a parabolic path.

  • The Telescope is Invented

  • Galileo Denies his own Work

    Inquisition told Galileo not to hold or defend the hypothesis asserted in Copernicus' On the Revolutions.

  • Apologia pro Galilaeo is Published

    Supports Galileo's Copernicanism and providing supporting arguments, among many other things, for the relationship between science and religion.

  • The Assayer is Published

    Galileo publishes his strategic essay, The Assayer where he argues against Aristotle and the Scholastics in favor of mathematical and experimental methods, moving deftly across many topics, from statics and dynamics to his theory of matter.

  • Anatomical Exercises on the Movement of the Heart and Blood is Published

    Harvey employed brilliant experiments and new quantitative arguments to show that the blood circulates.

  • Galileo is called Before Rome

    Galileo is called before the Inquisition in Rome; he is vehemently suspected of heresy for supporting and teaching the Copernicanism hypothesis. After he abjured, Galileo was placed under house arrest for the remainder of his life, his visitors, his mail, and his daily actions were monitored.

  • Discourse on Method is Published by Descartes

    Published by Descartes and is considered the father of modern geometry.

  • Evangelista Torricelli Discovers Great Useage for Mercury

    Having filled a sealed tube with mercury, and with the open end immersed in mercury, noted that the height fell in the tube to a consistent level, leaving a void above it.

  • Thomas Hobbes publishes The Leviathan

    Refkects evident in his study of natural phenomena, most notably mechanistic concepts relating to physiology and sensation. Famously, Hobbes held human life 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short'.

  • Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charletoniana is Published

    Written by Walter Charleton

  • First notable Microscope Experiment

    Marcello Malpighi uses the microscope to observes capillaries joining arteries and veins. Malpighi showed in fine detail that blood circulates.

  • Robert Boyle Presents a Gas Law

  • Issac Newton's First notable Experiment

    Isaac Newton builds his first reflecting telescope; the design, which includes an eyepiece and a concave mirror, is known today as Newtonian.

  • Newton Presents the Prism

  • John Mayow and Particles

    Proposes that certain particles in the air are necessary for combustion and are transmitted by the lungs to the blood.

  • Antoni van Leeuwenhoek observes of spermatozoa

    Observes of spermatozoa by means of the microscope, arguing they are not forms of disease but a source of reproductive material.

  • Robert Hooke's Letter to Newton

    Robert Hooke wrote a legendary letter asking Newton's opinion on the possibility of explaining the motions of the planets on the assumption of inertia and an attractive power from the sun. This heroic exchange of letters led to a legendary series of events

  • Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

  • Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy is Published

    Proposes foundational principles for what has come to known as classical mechanics; by tradition.

  • Edmond Halley Provides A New Equation

    Edmond Halley provides a mathematical equation for finding the focal lengths of lenses of all shapes.

  • Robert Hooke dies

    Newton decides to go forward in publishing his work on optics.

  • Newton Publishes pieces of work on optics

    Newton is elected President of Royal Society the same year

  • Issac Newton Dies

  • Newton's Observations Upon the Prophecies is published in London

    Scientific Revolution ends here.