Notes: Brief History of Certain aspects of Science

Notes taken not word-for-word, but translated into my own words from the book: The Complete Idiot´s Guide to Understanding Einstein (2nd edition) by Gary F. Moring.

Greeks = earliest contributors to mechanical science

Science of mechanics = describes causes of motion and material objects. Also explains the motion of earthly and ‘heavenly’ bodies, inclusive of falling objects and projectiles.

Eratosthenes (~300 BC/BCE) = used trigonometry to show that the Earth was round and calculated the circumference. They were not far off from the true circumference calculated today.

Paradigm shift – (watered down definition [more on Paradigm shift later]) – a dramatic change.

A paradigm shift occured in what is known as the Renaissance period between the years of 1350 and 1550.

During the Renaissance period, the Catholic church had the most power. Also, during this time scholastic philosophy was the dominant western type of philosophy.

Scholastic Philosophy = the religious beliefs overpowered observation in terms of how science was interpreted.

This period was, however, important because it allowed people to ask questions.

-The more about Paradigm Shift promised earlier-

Paradigm = dominant world view, Shift = a change

Geocentric theory notes part 1

• The geocentric theory lasted 1800 years
• Ptolemy of Alexandria took Aristotle’s theory and put his spheres into a mathematical system
• Copernicus rediscovered Aristotle’s original system in the 16th century

Notes on Aristotle Part 2

Aristotle’s astronomical system was made up of connecting spheres totalling 56.

Prime mover – the outer most sphere, and all other spheres connected to it and receive motion from it.

The church later tried to use this to explain God.

Aristotle failed to explain what allowed the prime mover to move.

Notes on Aristotle Part 1

The geocentric theory of the universe was adopted by Aristotle. This means that he believed that the earth is the center which other planetary objects revolve around. And Aristotle also believed that the shape of every object´s orbit was perfectly circular.

Aristotle divided the universe into two parts:

A. Subliminar (earth)

B. Astronomical (space)

Aristotle believed that the astronomical part of the universe was composed of four main ‘elements’:

1. earth

2. fire

3. air

4. water

This idea originated from the Empedocles.

Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion

(Published by Johannes Kepler between the years of 1609 and 1618)

(Paraphrased but not transcribed verbatim from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Einstein, 2nd Edition, by Gary F. Moring)

The Laws of Planetary Motion

First Law: All the planets revolve around the Sun in elliptical orbits.

Second Law: A line uniting connecting the Sun and a planet sweeps over equal areas in equal time as the planet moves through its orbit.

Third Law: The square of the time a planet takes for one complete revolution around the Sun is proportional to the cube of the planet’s distance from the Sun.