-
566 BCE
Ptolemy
Ptolemy worked with Aristotle to create the Geocentric theory. This theory dictates that all planets in the solar system revolve around earth. Although they did not have the scientific instruments to prove the theory, people went along with it because it was a new way to think about the solar system, and nobody had the scientific means to challenge it. -
566 BCE
Aristotle
Aristotle contributed to the Geocentric theory, otherwise known as the Earth-Centered theory. This theory dictates that every planet in the solar system revolves around earth. This theory changed the world because at the time no one had ever thought about the way the planets rotated and revolved, so he and Ptolemy had changed the way of thinking about earth. -
Jan 1, 1500
Nicolas Copernicus
In the early 1500's Nicolas Copernicus created the Heliocentric theory, Otherwise known as the Sun-Centered theory. At first people paid little attention to this theory, because it denied what their senses told them. Copernicus did not have the scientific tools to prove his theory, so the theory was not taken seriously. -
1540
Francois Viete
Francois Viete had less to do with science and more about math, but he still had a hand in furthering the education of the world. Although algebra had already been created, he helped pioneer a new form of algebra which was dubbed simply, New Algebra. This new form would help scientists make discoveries and changed the way we worked with numbers. -
1543
Andreas Vesalius
Andreas Vesalius was a student of the human body. But he refused to accept the descriptions of human muscles written almost 1,400 years earlier by Galen. He conducted his own studies and ended up writing a seven volume book called the "On the Fabric of the Human Body". This book was one of the most detailed works at the time, the book helped readers gage how the human body worked together. -
1550
Johannes Kepler
Kepler was an extremely brilliant German mathematician, who used -
1550
,Galileo Galilei
Galilei had heard of a prototype of a device that magnified far things so you could see them better. He then made his own version of this device calling it the telescope. Although this was not as sophisticated as the telescopes we have today, he was still able to observe things no one had ever seen up close. Such as the moon and the rings of Saturn. He used this device to help prove the Heliocentric theory. Showing people that the sun was not rotating around the earth, but the other way around. -
1572
Tycho Brahe
At the time people believed in a geocentric theory of the earth he helped change it into the Heliocentric theory. He changed thinking because he disproved theories. -
William Harvey
Like Vesalius, Harvey too was a student of the human body. He used more accurate scientific instruments than what Vesalius had at the time, and conducted laboratory experiments on the circulation of blood. In his works he described how the blood moved through the veins and arteries and he also studied how it got through the heart. Harvey didn't challenge or change previous thinking, but he did use physical evidence and experiments to prove things previously talked about by Vesalius. -
Francis Bacon
English Philosopher and Scientist, Francis Bacon, believed that scientific theories could be developed only through observation. He claimed that no assumption can be trusted unless it could be proven by repeatable experiments. He changed the way outside people looked at science, because people at the time just believed people like Religious Figures -
Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes felt that no assumption should be taken without question. He instead developed philosophy based on his own reason. -
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton published a book building on the work of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. These guys proved why planets moved around the earth. But Newton was the first one who was able to explain why this was. He created the laws of universal gravitation which states that all bodies attract each other. -
Robert Boyle
English-Irish scientist, Robert Boyle helped pioneer modern science of chemistry. Boyle showed that temperature and pressure affect the space a gas occupies. -
Antoine Lavoisier
Before Lavoisier people believed that Fire was an element. He showed that fire resulted when a substance rapidly combined with oxygen. He challenged the way people looked at fire because instead of it being an element he showed that it was made by elementa -
Joseph Priestley
English chemist Joseph Priestley discovered the element oxygen in 1774. He didn't challenge or change scientific thinking but he added to it.
