Topic 4.2: The Scientific Revolution

key terms only

Scientific Revolution

a more systematic approachto aquiring knowledge about the natural world

Scientific Method

aproaches based on observation, experimentation, and reason

Francis Bacon

encouraged scientists to build their knowledge on inductive reaonsing

Inductive Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning

Rene Descartes

wanted scientists to think like students of geometry and use deductive reasoning

Issac Newton

brought both forms of reasoning together into the scientific method

Natural Law

formulation of the general principles about the way the world worked

Mathematics

Astronomy

arragement of the stars; study of the universe beyond earth

Cosmology

branch of astronomy relating to the origin and structure of the universe

Nicolaus Copernicus

believed in a heliocentric universe; studied the physical world

Heliocentric

controversial theory that the sun was at the center of the solar system

Johannes Keplar

created the theory that the planets had elliptical orbits rather than circular

Galileo Galilei

first European to build and use a telescope

Telescope

Galen

Paracelsus

Andreas Vesalius

William Harvey

Alchemy

Astrology