Identifications: 1.

The Renaissance
The Renaissance occurred in Europe from the mid 15th century to the early 17th century. It begun in Italy and slowly spread throughout Europe. During this period the interest in classical antiquity and humanism was renewed. There were very little considerable developments in agriculture and the stands of living rose. Intellectuals aspired to satisfy the senses, take pleasure in life, and had no apprehension about death and the afterlife.

2. The Age of Revolution

The Age of Revolution occurred after the Renaissance from the late 16th century to the end of the 18th century throughout the world. Five revolutions rose during this age: the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. The Scientific Revolution began in the late 16th centuries gave rise to a new way of studying nature through the use of the experimental method. The Enlightenment, the age of the philosophers, occurred during the 18th century. During the Enlightenment period intellectuals endeavored to put an end to the oppression of religion and saw science as the salvation to the problems occurring. The French Revolution (1781-1799) was a period of political and social turmoil in French and European history with the removal of the Ancient Regime. The American Revolution (1776) was a chain of wars fought on the American continent and against European colonialism, which resulted in democracy as a reality. At the end of the 18th century England, then progressively Europe and most of the Western civilization underwent an Industrial Revolution. The social order moved from an agricultural and semi-feudal society to the modern industrial world.

3. Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer who formulated astronomical reforms. Copernicus was the first to create a comprehensive heliocentric system and put the earth in motion in order to achieve his goal of purifying mathematical astronomy.

4. The Copernican System

The Copernican system is the heliocentric model that Copernicus created. In this system the sun is in the center of the universe and showed that the observed motions of the other planets can be explained with the Earth in motion.

5. The problem of Mercury and Venus

The problem of Mercury and Venus is that observations show Mercury 22 and Venus 44 from the Sun. Ptolemy could not explain why the center of the epicycles of Mercury and Venus on the line connecting the Earth and the Sun are placed between the Earth and the Sun. Copernicus solved this problem by stating that the planets orbit the sun and since Mercury and Venus are closer to the Sun they are never more than the set distance from the Sun.

6. The problem of parallelism of radii

The problem of parallelism of radii is Ptolemy could not explain why all the planets have epicycles the same size as the Suns orbit and the lines connecting the planets to their respective epicyclical centers is parallel to the line connecting the Sun and Earth. Copernicus explained it by predicting a tie rod connecting the Sun to a planet, which forces the planet to remain at a fixed distance and makes the radii remain co-parallel.

7. The problem of retrograde motion

The problem of retrograde motion could not be explained by Ptolemy, he could only observe retrograde motion occurring. Copernicus could say that retrograde motion occurs because the

Earth catches up to and passes another planet going around the Sun, so that the other planet appears to be going backward.

8. The problem of the order of the planets

The problem of the order of the planets was that Ptolemy arbitrarily placed the epicycles of Mercury and Venus on the line connecting the Sun and Earth. In the Copernican system planets are ordered by their increasing period of revolution. The Copernican order is the Sun at the center, mercury, Venus, Earth and the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

9. Advantages of the Copernican system

The advantages of the Copernican system were that it solved the problems of Mercury and Venus, parallelism of radii, retrograde motion, and the order of the planets.

10. Where did Copernicus get his inspiration for the new system?
Copernicus got his inspiration for the new system from the ancient. Copernicus got the idea of a heliocentric system from reading ancient astronomers like Cicero, Plutarch, and Aristarchus all of whom discussed a heliocentric system.

11. Cosmological implications of Copernicus work

The cosmological implication of Copernicus system was that in putting the Earth in motion Copernicus destroyed the sense and coherence of Aristotelian physics. The heliocentric system wouldnt work unless the Earth was in motion.

12. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres or De Revolutiones was written by Copernicus and published in 1543, twelve years after it was finished. In De Revolutiones, Copernicus promoted a heliocentric system. De Revolutiones offered an alternative from Ptolemys geocentric system.

13. Philip Melancthon

Philip Melancthon (1497-1560) was a professor of Greek at the Lutheran University in Wittenberg. He influenced the establishment of the new Protestant curriculum in Lutheran universities and initiated educational reforms. Because of his interest in science and math, he assembled a circle of intelligent mathematicians around him, including George Joachim, Casper Peucer, and Erasmus Reinhold.

14. Andreas Osiander

Andreas Osiander was a first generation Lutheran astronomer who wrote an anonymous preface attached to De Revolutiones. In the preface, he stated that Copernicus heliocentric system was for mathematical purposes only and was not a physical representation of the cosmology of earth.

15. Stellar parallax

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16. Geo-heliocentric model

The geo-heliocentric model was the compromise to Copernicus heliocentric model to preserve Aristotelian physics created by Tycho Brahe. The model places the planets revolving around the Sun and the Sun revolving around a fixed and stationary Earth. This model never developed into mathematical model capable of making predicitons.

17. Kepler
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18. Cosmographic Mystery

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19. Area law

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20. William Gilberts treatise on magnetism

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21. New Astronomy

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22. Galileo Galilei

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23. The Protestant Reformation

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24. Literal interpretation of the bible

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25. Giordano Bruno

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26. Letters on Sunspots

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27. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

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28. Conflict between science and religion

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29. Galileo on free fall

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30. Galileo on projectiles

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31. Galileo on rest and motion

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32. Galileos foundations for a new system of physics

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33. Galileos choice of circular inertia

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34. Galileos contribution to scientific method

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Essay Questions: 1. Describe the significance of Copernicus in the making of the modern mind. 2. Describe the heavens in primitive cosmologies. 3. What is the apparent motion of the sun and how did ancient calendars address the problem? 4. What was the two-sphere universe view of cosmology? 5. What were the ancient competitors of the two-sphere universe? 6. What is apparent planetary motion? 7. Explain the theory of homocentric spheres. 8. What are epicycles and deferents? 9. Who was Ptolemy, what was his astronomy and how was it validated? 10. Describe the Aristotelian universe. 11. Explain the Aristotelian laws of motion. 12. What is the Aristotelian Plenum? 13. Describe European science and learning to the 13th century. 14. What was the attitude of the church towards astronomy? 15. How was Aristotle criticized by the scholastics? 16. What was the state of astronomy at Copernicus' birth? 17. Why was Copernicus' innovation so revolutionary? 18. Discuss Copernicus's preface to the Revolutiones. 19. Describe Copernicus' physics and cosmology. 20. Describe Copernicus's astronomy (the Sun, planets and harmony). 21. How was Copernicus' work first received? 22. Who was Tycho Brahe and what was his astronomy/cosmology? 23. Who was Kepler and what was his astronomy/cosmology? 24. Who was Galileo and what was his contribution to the Copernican system?