Copernican Revolution

(noun)

The paradigm shift from the Ptolemaic model of the heavens, which described the cosmos as having Earth stationary at the center of the universe, to the heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System. Beginning with the publication of Nicolaus Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, contributions to the “revolution” continued until finally ending with Isaac Newton’s work over a century later.

Related Terms

Examples of Copernican Revolution in the following topics:

  • Foundations of "Science"

    • "We could say that the Middle Ages saw nature as striving towards its own inner order: and that the Scientific Revolution overthrew this order and put in its place the mechanism of causes. … On the one hand, all science, and indeed all thinking starts from and rests upon the notions of order; what marks the Middle Ages is that their order was always a hierarchy.
    • Before the Copernican Revolution, a common belief was that the Earth was a stationary center of the universe.
    • The Copernican or heliocentric view gained dominance.
    • Galileo [1564-1642] verified the Copernican system with a new technology (the telescope).

  • Physics and Mathematics

    • While the dates of the scientific revolution are disputed, the publication in 1543 of Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) is often cited as marking the beginning of the scientific revolution.
    • Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica concluded the Copernican Revolution.
    • The scientific revolution also witnessed the development of modern optics.
    • Distinguish between the different key figures of the Scientific Revolution and their achievements in mathematics and physics.

  • Astronomy

    • While astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, its development during the Scientific Revolution entirely transformed the views of society about nature by moving from geocentrism to heliocentrism.
    • Copernican heliocentrism is the name given to the astronomical model developed by Nicolaus Copernicus and published in 1543.
    • From 1543 until about 1700, few astronomers were convinced by the Copernican system.
    • While contradicting Aristotelian belief, it supported Copernican cosmology which stated that Earth is a planet like all others.
    • Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician, who played an important role in the 17th century Scientific Revolution.

  • The Spread of Revolution

  • Japan's Industrial Revolution

  • The October Revolution

  • Egypt's First Revolution

  • The Iranian Revolution

  • The Cultural Revolution

  • The Green Revolution