Curated playlist
Copernican Revolution
- Nicolaus CopernicusThe first attacks on Copernicus came from Protestants, not the Catholic Church.
- Galileo GalileiGalileo watched four points of light move beside Jupiter. In January 1610 he realized they were moons circling it.
- Copernican heliocentrismIn 1543, a book appeared that asked its readers to believe the Earth was moving. Its author, Nicolaus Copernicus, placed the Sun near the center of the Universe and set Earth and the other planets circling it. For centuries, astronomers…
- Newton's laws of motionA book on a table shows why Newton's third law confuses students.
- Galilean moonsGalileo first mistook Jupiter's moons for fixed stars. By January 15, 1610, he knew they orbited the planet.
- GeocentrismGeocentrism is the old picture of the Universe with Earth at its center, and it has not entirely vanished from modern minds. A report released in 2014 by the National Science Foundation found that 26% of Americans surveyed believe the Sun…
- De revolutionibus orbium coelestiumAn unsigned letter in Copernicus' book said its ideas need not be true. A Lutheran preacher added it.
- Johannes KeplerJohannes Kepler refused to accept a Mars orbit that was off by eight arcminutes. An ellipse finally fit.
- Thomas DiggesIn 1576, Thomas Digges printed that stars have no outer shell and stretch on without end.
- Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia MathematicaHalley paid to print Newton's Principia, then got leftover books instead of his salary.
- Tycho BraheTycho Brahe lost the bridge of his nose in a sword duel over who was the better mathematician.
- Kepler's laws of planetary motionMars refused to fit a circle, and that failure gave Kepler his first law.