Scientific Revolution Quote Matching
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 6.10ACTIVITYSCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION QUOTE MATCHINGUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “Scientific Revolution QuoteMatching,” OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1PurposeThe Scientific Revolution was a complex, centuries-long event, and many people contributed to it. By analyzing a set of quotes from authors who contributed to advancing the understanding of the natural world, you’ll see how different ideas built on one another and how much of our current understanding of the world was influenced by this key period.Process1.Read the descriptions of each thinker from the Scientific Revolution below.Author’s major accomplishments and lifespanNicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543): Claimed that the Sun, not Earth, was at the center of the Universe. This idea, called heliocentrism, challenged the older belief that everything revolved around Earth (geocentrism). Francis Bacon (1561–1626): Promoted a new way of studying the natural world based on observation, evidence, and experimentation. He argued that scientists should collect facts carefully before reaching conclusions. His ideas helped shape what we now call the scientific method.Tycho Brahe (1546–1601): Made careful observations of the planets and more than 700 stars, and recorded highly accurate astronomical data before telescopes were widely used. Observed a supernova in 1572, which proved that the heavens change over time.Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Developed an improved telescope with which he observed the cratered surface of the Moon, Jupiter’s moons, Venus, and other objects in space. He confirmed Copernicus’s claim that Earth moves around the Sun. He was targeted by the pope and the Catholic Inquisition for challenging church doctrine and was tried for heresy, forced to renounce his claims, and sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 6.10ACTIVITYSCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION QUOTE MATCHING2Author’s major accomplishments and lifespanAntonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723): Developed powerful microscopes and became the first person to observe single-celled organisms. He described bacteria, blood cells, and microorganisms.Isaac Newton (1642–1727): Combined the work of earlier scientists into an explanation of motion and gravity. His three laws of motion and law of universal gravitation showed that the same rules that explain falling objects on Earth could explain the movement of planetsin space.Robert Hooke (1635–1703): Used microscopes to study plants and insects and coined the word cell. His book Micrographiaincluded detailed drawings of what he saw through the microscope.2.Next, read these short primary source excerpts from important texts of the ScientificRevolution. Match the author from the descriptions above to each quote by using clues in the quote to connect to their accomplishments.Primary Source ExcerptAuthor:“Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature. Beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.” (1620)
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 6.10ACTIVITYSCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION QUOTE MATCHING3Primary Source ExcerptAuthor:"...an unbelievably great company of living animalcules, a-swimming more nimbly than any I had ever seen up to this time. The biggest sort...bent their body into curves in going forwards...Moreover, the other animalcules were in such enormous numbers, that all the water...seemed to be alive."(1683)“...having confirmed that my vision was not deceiving me, but in fact that an unusual star existed there, beyond all type...immediately I got ready my instrument. I began to measure its location and distance from the neighboring stars in Cassiopeia, and to note extremely diligently those things which were visible to the eye, concerning its apparent size, form, color, and otheraspects.” (1573)“HenceI feel no shame in asserting that this whole region engirdled by the moon, and the center of the earth, traverse this grand circle amid the rest of the planets in an annual revolution around the sun. Near the sun is the center of the universe. Moreover, since the sun remains stationary, whatever appears as a motion of the sun is really due rather to the motion of the earth.” (1543)“I. Every bodyperseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impress'd thereon.II. The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impress'd; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impress'd.III. To every Action there is always opposed an equal Reaction: or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.” (1729)By the means of Telescopes, there is nothing so far distant but may be represented to our view; and by the help of Microscopes, there is nothing so small, as to escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visible World discovered to the understanding... and in every little particle of its matter; we now behold almost as great a variety of Creatures, as we were able before to reckon up in the whole Universe it self.(1664)
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 6.10ACTIVITYSCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION QUOTE MATCHING4Primary Source ExcerptAuthor:“...[the]Moon appears about thirty times larger, its surface about nine hundred times, and its solid mass nearly 27,000 times larger than when it is viewed only with the naked eye; and consequently any one may know with the certainty that is due to the use of our senses, that the Moon certainly does not possess a smooth and polished surface, but one rough and uneven, and, just like the face of the Earth itself, is everywhere full of vast protuberances, deep chasms, and sinuosities.” (1610)3.Using the quotations above and what you learned from reading the “What Was the Scientific Revolution?”article, develop a question that a historian would want answered about the Scientific Revolution. Write a few sentences explaining why you think this is an important question.