Renaissance+Scientists+2


 * Scientists on this page**
 * Copernicus
 * René Descartes
 * Isaac Newton
 * Galileo
 * Geradus Mercator




 * Nicolaus Copernicus**

He was born on February 19, 1473. He was born in a place called Thorn, Poland. Nicolaus was from a middle class background and was raised by his uncle who gave him an intensely good education. He was raised by his uncle due to his fathers death when he was 10 years old.To that affect, he studied mathematics, philosophy, astronomy and astrology. He was an extremely intelligent young man. He received a degree in Bologona University. He went on in his life to be a Lawyer, Doctor, Judge, Tax collector, Astronomer, and a Military Governor. He said that the earth turned on its axis once a day and he doubted that the earth lay in the middle of the universe. He also stated that in a yearly motion the eart was stationary around the sun. Copernicus wrote a book which stated that he thought that the earth is not the center of the universe, contracted to popular belief. People thought stars where holes in a glass ball around the earth. He was the man who question whether or not the earth is actually circling the sun. But the people who read his book did not like this. People disliked the book so much they threatened to put the man in jail but the he passed away shortly after.




 * René Descartes**

“I think therefore I am” Born March 31, 1569, René lived in a small town in France called, La Haye. He attended the Henry the fourth college and went off to study civil and canon law at Poiters. He joined the Prince Maurice, army in 1618. All of this happened after he graduated college at the age of ten! He was a well known mathematician, scientist and philosopher! He liked to investigate nature and he invented a thing called, analytic Geometry. He was the first scientist to explore the realms of the universe in terms of matter and motion. He had three books published. They are called; What he described in these books was how he believed that the world consisted of two things, matter and spirit. Matter being a certain physical universe, and spirit being your own mind, everyone's thoughts, feelings, and knowledge. He died in Sweden fulfilled and brilliant.
 * Discourse on Method
 * Meditations on first Philosophy
 * Principles of Philosophy




 * Galileo Galilei**

“He was the greatest scientist who ever lived!” Born February 15, 1564, Galileo made his way into the world at a place called Pisa. Later on in his life, he was sentenced to go to jail for writing a controversial book and sticking to his word. He never actually made it to jail though, because they changed the sentence to confining him to house arrest. The book was about “the two chief world systems of Ptolmey and Copernicus. Galileo was gave three lectures in Padua. That was where he was teaching at the time. A lot of talk went around about Galileo speaking, that the halls of his college were so crowded people could barely move around. In 1609, which was five years after the successful lectures, Galileo made his very first telescope to look at the universe and prove Copennicus’s therey. When he looked at the moon he saw mountains, valleys, and craters. Back then people thought that the moon was a perfict sphere. After Copernicus died another smart person was born and his name was Galileo Galilei. Galileo decided he was going to prove Copernicis’s theroy.




 * Geradus Mercator**

Geradus was born in March on the 5th and in the year of 1518. He studied Philosophy. He then went on to study mathematics and graduated with flying colors! Geradus also made many maps of the stars and of the world. Although most of his world maps were not very affective. One of his maps called the first map of Flanders. In his maps, all of the lines of latitude and longitude are parallel.




 * Isaac Newton**

Newton invented calculus which was a new type of math and extremely hard. Newton discovered prisms, invented a new telescope, and most importantly the laws of motion which are:

1. An object continues at rest or in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by another object or force.

2. The acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass. In other words the heavier an object is, the more energy it will take to speed it up, or slow it down.

3. To every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. Or in other words if you push on something in outer space, it will push against you just as hard. If you throw something in outer space you will go the opposite direction.