The Scientific Revolution

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From about 1543 to 1700, European thinkers changed how people understood nature by relying on observation, experiment and mathematics instead of ancient authority. Nicolaus Copernicus proposed that the Earth and planets orbit the Sun (heliocentrism) in 1543, the same year Andreas Vesalius published an accurate human anatomy book. Johannes Kepler found that planets move in ellipses.

Galileo Galilei used the telescope to see moons around Jupiter, craters on the Moon and phases of Venus, supporting Copernicus, and was tried by the Inquisition and placed under house arrest. Francis Bacon promoted inductive reasoning from evidence, and Rene Descartes stressed doubt and logic. Isaac Newton's Principia (1687) explained motion and gravity with simple laws, such as force equals mass times acceleration, uniting earth and sky.

Scientists shared findings through journals and societies like the Royal Society. Example: Galileo dropped or rolled objects down ramps to measure how they accelerate, rather than just trusting Aristotle. Applications include navigation, medicine and engineering, and the method still underlies science. A misconception is that science and religion were always at war; many scientists were devout, though conflicts did occur. The revolution encouraged Enlightenment thinkers to apply reason to society.