Scientist during Scientific Revolution

Sir Isaac Newton

1642–1727

Place of Birth: Woolsthorpe, England

Biography:

Born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, England, Isaac Newton was an established physicist and mathematician, and is credited as one of the great minds of the 17th century Scientific Revolution. With discoveries in optics, motion and mathematics, Newton developed the principles of modern physics. In 1687, he published his most acclaimed work, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), which has been called the single most influential book on physics. Newton died in London on March 31, 1727.

Legacy:

 Newton’s discoveries anchored the Scientific Revolution and set the stage for everything that followed in mathematics and physics. He shared credit for the creation of calculus, and his Philosophiae Naturalist Principia Mathematical introduced the world to gravity and fundamental laws of motion.

Galileo Galilei
1564–1642
Place of Birth: Pisa, Duchy of Florence, Italy

Biography:

He was an Italian astronomer,physicist, engineer, philosopher, and mathematician who played a major role in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance. Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics",and the "father of science". His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honour), and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments.

Legacy/ Discoveries:

He contradicted the church ideas and set his own for the people and other fellow scientist which may be used to help them look for more ideas and facts about the world. He also made the Telescope that help him studied and observed the outer space and other heavenly bodies. He also contributed many things not only in Science but also in Mathematics and in discovery of Physics.

Rene Descartes
1596 – 1650
Place of Birth: La Haye en Touraine, France

Biography:

He was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. Dubbed the father of modern philosophy, much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings,[7][8] which are studied closely to this day. He spent about 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic.

Legacy/ Discoveries:

He contributed in Mathematics with his Graphs, x and y axis and the Cartesian plates and also contributed in Algebra and Geometry. He also introduce Deductive reasoning which help many investigators and detectives nowadays. He provided the basis in Calculus that was develop by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.

 

Johannes Kepler
1571–1630
Place of Birth: Free Imperial City of Weil der Stadt, Holy Roman Empire

Biography:

He was a German mathematician,astronomer, and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his laws of planetary motion, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. These works also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation. During his career, Kepler was a mathematics teacher at a seminary school in Graz, Austria, where he became an associate of Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg. Later he became an assistant to astronomer Tycho Brahe, and eventually the imperial mathematician to Emperor Rudolf II and his two successors Matthias and Ferdinand II. He was also a mathematics teacher in Linz, Austria, and an adviser to General Wallenstein. Additionally, he did fundamental work in the field of optics, invented an improved version of the refracting telescope (the Keplerian Telescope), and mentioned the telescopic discoveries of his contemporary Galileo Galilei.

Legacy/ Discoveries:

Johannes Kepler was the one who studied the orbits of the planets and sought to discern some grand scheme that defined the structure of the universe according to simple geometry. Though he was unable to do accomplish his goal, he did come up with the laws of planetary motion, which explained the orbital properties of planets, and factored extensively into Isaac Newton's later work.

Nicolas Copernicus
1473-1543
Place of Birth: Toruń, Poland

Biography:

He was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated amodel of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe.[a] The publication of this model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) just before his death in 1543 is considered a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making an important contribution to the Scientific Revolution.

Legacy/ Discoveries:

He presented the heliocentric theory, which rested on the revolutionary notion that the Earth orbited the sun.Copernicus's heliocentric theory began what became known as the Copernican Revolution, sparking the ideas and experiments of later scientists like Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Most significantly, Kepler modified Copernicus's theory from perfect circles to ellipses, and thus solved many issues with the original model--especially the ones having to do with retrograde motion.