History of Modern Science, Galileo, and Newton - Article Example

History of Modern Science, Galileo and Newton Modern science has gifted us with a number of inventions and new products which have made our lives so easy to live. On the same token, there have been innovators, scientists, physicists and mathematicians who have changed the course of this planet ever since they brought about their marvels into reality and showed the existence avenue to look after the needs of the people and take care of their desires in a better and more adaptable way. When one thinks of such innovators and people who changed the course of history, two men come to mind instantly – Galileo and Newton. Here in this paper, both are discussed; compared and analyzed in a deep manner as per their respective works which brought about a significant change within our modern day luxuries that mankind has in the present times. Galileo was born on 15th February 1564 and is widely regarded as an Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher of repute. He had a major hand in bringing about the scientific revolution within history. His name is synonymous with the very best in the world of innovators, physicists and thinkers since he was, is and will always remain a genius. Mankind owes a lot of gratitude to the personality of Galileo and hence the reason that he is still remembered as a hero notwithstanding a great amount of time has passed since he died – on 8th January 1642. Galileo brought to the fore his achievements in the line of improvements that he made towards the working domains of the telescope as well as the consequent astronomical observations with added support for the sake of Copernicanism. Without a doubt, this formed the basis as to why he was regarded as the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", “the father of Modern Science” and the "father of science." Galileo studied the motion of uniformly accelerated objects which is usually there in all school and college curricula. The physics courses have special mention of such objects and it comes especially under the heading of kinematics. Galileo made contributions towards the field of observational astronomy which has entailed within it the discovery of the four largest satellites that Jupiter has and named as the Galilean moons. This was so done to give him honor and respect for his work. He also studied the sunspots, firstly made an observation regarding them and then analyzing them in the end. Further, he worked tirelessly towards the related fields of applied science and technology. (Shea & Artigas, 2003) On the other hand, Sir Isaac Newton was born on 25th December 1642. Newton was an English physicist, astronomer, mathematician, alchemist, natural philosopher and a theologian. His Philosophie Naturalis Principia Mathematica was published in the year 1687. Historians and critics alike remark it as a piece of art when it comes to discerning the history of science and its related sub-domains. Through the manifestation of this work of his, Sir Newton made a clear cut description of the universal gravitation force as well as the three laws of motion. What this did was to lay the solid footing on which the pillars of modern day physics rest strongly. This made a very pivotal point at finding the scientific view related with the physical universe in the coming generations and also had a strong link with the engineering faculty. His work demonstrated that the motions of different objects on Earth happened due to already set laws which were taken care of by physical basis and there was a strict consistency between Keplers laws related with planetary motion and Newton’s theory of gravitation. He was able to remove a number of apprehensions related with heliocentrism and made sure that he advanced swiftly down the lane of the scientific revolution. Newton died in the year 1727. Coming back to Galileo, he is perhaps the most famous of individuals who invented the telescope. He actually did not invent it though. He used this telescope in order to explore the different avenues which came under the domain of astronomy and helped develop and further enhance the use of this invention endlessly. He changed man’s perception of the solar system once and for all as he saw something that no man before him ever saw let alone explored. The observations of Galileo changed the basis of the geocentric solar system once and for all. He saw a number of things with the help of his telescope however two of his observations laid the foundation for the heliocentric solar system. He observed the basis of Jupiter, one and he explored the planet Venus. In his work on the planet Jupiter, he not only explored the planet but also found out that it has four stars of its own. These stars lied in close vicinity of the planet itself and thus the reason that he derived a relational basis between the planet and its stars. These stars were more or less in close alliance with its equatorial line and moved along with the planet as and when the day moved ahead. There was a constant shift in the direction of the stars along with the planet itself with each passing day of Jupiter. This formed up as a significant basis for the comprehension that a number of different moons surrounded the planet Jupiter in the first place and that not everything orbits the Earth alone. However this was against the teachings that were being studied during the time and hence he defied the theories of his time. Later on, when he viewed Venus, he found out that this planet used to different phases which were in close comparison with that of the Earth’s Moon. Since Moon orbits the Earth, this actually meant a little deal in the light of his work on Venus. For him, the position of this planet and its different phases were illogical as the same did not make sense for him. He discerned that when Venus used to be gibbous, it was on the far side of the planet Earth whilst in comparison with the sun. However he found out this was simply not the case in essence. Moreover, he explored that during the gibbous phase, Venus used to lie in the same direction as that of the sun as well as smaller than while it was during the crescent phase. Lastly, he found that Venus never appeared on the opposite side of the planet Earth than the sun and this formed up as pretty strong basis that Venue orbited than sun and not the Earth. Apart from his work on Venus and Jupiter, Galileo found out craters as well as mountains situated upon the Moon. He studied the Milky Way which was basically a myriad of a number of different stars as well as sunspots located on the sun’s surface. He opined that all these observations resulted in making the celestial objects feel some sense of imperfection within their physical existence. Once again, this defied the teachings and doctrines which were applicable at the time. His observation of sun spots on the sun determined that the sun underwent differential rotation periods. This meant that the equatorial regions comprised within the sun rotate in a much faster manner than its polar regions that were located on its outsides. These findings showed that the geocentric system was no more applicable and that the heliocentric system was much more understandable and hence the reason that it rose to the top of the related studies. He essentially changed the perspectives related with the way solar system was going to be viewed in the times to come. Similarly, Newton made a number of different contributions in the field of physics and mathematics. He devised the famous three laws of motion. The first law of motion made clear that "a body in motion shall remain in motion moving with a constant speed and direction, unless acted on by an outside force". Moving on, the second Newton law asserted that "the magnitude of the force is proportional to the mass of the object being moved and the product of its change in velocity with respect to time". Lastly, his most famous law suggested that "for every force there is an equal and opposite force". These laws are not only comprehensive but also simplistic right from the beginning of their understanding levels. One need not be a scientist to discern what the laws contain within their fold but the fact that they have come to the fore courtesy Newton himself raises a great deal of significance for these laws. The concept of acceleration is also very quintessential to understand since Newton focused a great deal on it as well. Acceleration is indeed defined as the change in a bodys speed and/or the direction which it covers in a certain period of time. (White, 1999) Hence it is imperative that the motion of planets follow this understanding that comes from acceleration nonetheless. Having a relational basis from Keplers first law which stated that planets used to move in elliptical paths, there was some sort of apprehension as per the basis of Newtonian laws. Kepler suggested that since there was a change in the direction of these planets hence there could be an outside force present which might act upon it. Newton also touched the pivotal aspect of the universal law of gravity whereby he stated that "two objects with mass exert a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of their separation upon each other," which meant that the heavier bodies exerted a greater deal of the gravitational attraction while more the distance between them, the weaker would be their gravitational attraction. This meant that when the planets go far away from the sun, the gravitational force becomes weak. Similarly, when the planets come in close association of each other, the gravitational force starts getting stronger with the closing distance. The force gets stronger when the body is near the sun and hence the acceleration levels start getting larger due to the very same phenomenon. He reckoned that this was usually seen when the planets took a turn around the sun at high speeds. The works of Newton laid the very basis for modern day beliefs which man has with respect to the solar system, its planets and the Earth and its neighbors. These concepts would take some hard work for them to be remarked as wrong or perhaps time can even suggest that Newton’s work was far ahead of time as we know in the present times as well. Bibliography Shea, William R & Artigas, Mariano. Galileo in Rome: The Rise and Fall of a troublesome Genius. Oxford University Press, 2003 White, Michael. Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer. Basic Books, 1999 Word Count: 1,773 Read More