Scientific Revolution1400-1700

Scientific Revolution

Period: 1400 to 1700

Gutenberg

1436

Printing Press

Peter Apian

1527

Apian publishes work on Pascal's Triangle and the Fibonacci Sequence.

Tartaglia

1535

Tartaglia publishes on Cubic Equations

Heliocentric Universe

1543

Nicolaus Copernicus bucks tradition by postulating and theorizing about the heliocentric universe, in which the sun (helios) not the Earth is the center of our galaxy.

Whetstone of Witte

1557

First appearance of the +/- symbols in text, as well as the = symbol, for mathematics.

Cardano

1563

Cardano publishes Liber de Ludo Aleae, which studies probability.

Johannes Kepler

1609

Kepler publishes his Laws of Planetary Motion, which both explain the movement of the planets within our solar system, but also back and prove Copernicus' theory of the Heliocentric Universe.

Logarithm

1614

John Napier publishes his work on logarithms, the exponent or power to which a base must be raised to yield a given number. Expressed mathematically, x is the logarithm of n to the base b if bx = n, in which case one writes x = logb n. For example, 23 = 8; therefore, 3 is the logarithm of 8 to base 2, or 3 = log2 8.

Compound Microscope

1620

Thermometer

1625

Santorio Santorini invents the Thermometer.

Rene Descartes

1637

Descartes applies algebra to geometry, making the maths more accessible and easy to understand to the average person.

Barometer

1643

Evangelista Torricelli and Gasparro Berti invent the Barometer, used to measure barometric pressure.

Phosphorus

1649

Hennig Brand discovers the element Phosphorus.

Corpusculation

1661

Robert Boyle publishes his theory of corpusculation, which basically states that the individual atom of a particular element is at its bassist level, and cannot be further reduced without completely destroying the atom.

Calculus

1684

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz publishes the first work on the subject of Calculus, the creation of which he shared credit with Sir Isaac Newton.