Scientific revolution facts for kids
The scientific revolution was a time (1550-1700) following the Middle Ages and the Renaissance when many discoveries were made. During this time, new ideas and discoveries fundamentally changed the way people thought; they also forced people to think differently, and started what is called science today. Better printing presses after Johannes Gutenberg's time caused a great rise in publishing. This period roughly lasted from the 16th to the 18th century.
Galileo Galilei invented kinematics and disproved Aristotle's old theory of gravity. One of his students said he dropped two balls of iron (one weighing one pound, the other a hundred) off the leaning tower of Pisa. The objects fell at the same speed which brought about new methods of thinking in that time period. In 1542, Nicolaus Copernicus published his work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, in which he said that not the earth, but the sun was at the center of the universe. This theory is known as Heliocentrism today. In the same year, Andreas Vesalius pubilshed his work On the Structure of the Human Body. This book is about the anatomy of the human body.
The philosopher Alexandre Koyré (1892–1964) first used the term 'scientific revolution' for this time period.
Images for kids
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Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Leoni
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Francis Bacon was a pivotal figure in establishing the scientific method of investigation. Portrait by Frans Pourbus the Younger (1617).
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Diagram from William Gilbert's De Magnete, a pioneering work of experimental science
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On this page Galileo Galilei first noted the moons of Jupiter. Galileo revolutionized the study of the natural world with his rigorous experimental method.
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Isaac Newton in a 1702 portrait by Godfrey Kneller
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The Royal Society had its origins in Gresham College in the City of London, and was the first scientific society in the world.
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The French Academy of Sciences was established in 1666.
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Portrait of Johannes Kepler
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Isaac Newton's Principia, developed the first set of unified scientific laws.
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Image of veins from William Harvey's Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus. Harvey demonstrated that blood circulated around the body, rather than being created in the liver.
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Title page from The Sceptical Chymist, a foundational text of chemistry, written by Robert Boyle in 1661
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Newton's Opticks or a treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colours of light
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Otto von Guericke's experiments on electrostatics, published 1672
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An ivory set of Napier's Bones, an early calculating device invented by John Napier
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The 1698 Savery Engine was the first successful steam engine
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Air pump built by Robert Boyle. Many new instruments were devised in this period, which greatly aided in the expansion of scientific knowledge.
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Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (right) in Athanasius Kircher, La Chine ... Illustrée, Amsterdam, 1670.
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See also
In Spanish: Revolución científica para niños
