Chapter 3 Jennifer Blazejack

Intorduction
Scientific Thinking
Physics
The Heavens are not perfect
Kepler’s Laws/ those before him
Modern Science/Galileo
Conclusion

Introduction
We were informed that deadlines for registering were pushed back till Monday and Wednesday. We also took the quiz for Chapter 2 and were told that the quizzes come from the Learning Goals of the chapter.
Scientific Thinking
“Based on everyday ideas of observations and trail-and-error experiments”. Tools are very important in scientific thinking. Models are a good example of tools because it can be used by other scientists and other scientists can modify or replace models that come with the scientific thinking of the age. Ancient models include Stonehenge, the Egyptian obelisk, and the Sun Dagger (which were models to represent time based on the Sun’s place in the sky).
Physics
“The study of motion”. The apple does fall from the tree because of gravity (as Newton discovered on his way home from school). Newton based his laws on some of Galileo’s objections to Aristotle’s ideas.
The Heavens are not perfect
It was believed by the ancient Greeks that the Heavens were perfect (as in perfect circles) and that the Earth was the center of the universe where everything in the sky followed the Earth (which was later disproved due to modern science). The first to question the Greeks way of thinking was Copernicus. He believed in Aristarchus’s Sun-centered idea, but Copernicus’s model still held the flaw of “the perfect heavens” (everything moves in a perfect circle). The next person to challenge and measure the sky was Tycho Brahe.
Kepler’s Laws/ those before him
Johannes Kepler was working under Tycho Brahe (a man who used the naked eye to observe the sky in an even better way- he built a model to measure the distance and it was very accurate considering the time he lived in). When Tycho passed away, Kepler held onto Tycho’s notes and worked hard on matching his data to Tycho’s (Kepler also believed the “perfect heavens” which he soon changed thanks to Tycho’s data).  Although his data own was off by 8 arcminutes, Kepler realized that he made the error, not Tycho. Kepler’s laws of planetary motion was born and so was the discovery of ellipses.
Modern Science/Galileo
Galileo Galilei was able to prove that the Earth did move due to his ball experiment.  The ball experiment proved that a ball in motion will stay in motion unless a force stops it. This experiment helped to prove that Kepler’s idea of planetary motion was true. Galileo also used his telescope to see the “imperfections” of the heavens.  Although he was right, the Catholic Church  ordered him to recant his claim about the Earth orbiting the Sun. Galileo did take back his claim, but later on modern science would prove that he was right.
Conclusion
We did not make it to the last section of class, but we did see Galileo’s notebook. We were again reminded that deadlines were pushed back.