Renaissance+Science+dsfa14

SCIENCE:

Alchemy is the study of reducing elements to a base substance by chemically removing their impurities. This was done through distillation and sublimation, forms which are still used today. A huge theme in Alchemy during the Renaissance was the attempt to turn lead to gold. Two other comonly used elements were sulphur and mercury, and salt was added later. Ancient texts, such as the Corpus Hermeticum, renewed interest in natural magic and the study of nature. Paracelsus (Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim), son of a physician who worked in mining towns, was introduceed to alchemy because of the diseases caused by metals encountered when mining. After his death, many of his manuscripts were printed. His followers relied on Holy Scripture and personal observations. Chemistry became important to his followers. Paracelsus believed that harmful chemicals entered the body and that other chemicals could treat diseases.
 * ALCHEMY**



Astronomy during the Renaissance was originally focused on Ptolemy's geocentric model, where the Earth was in the center of the universe, and the sun, planets, and stars orbited around the Earth.
 * ASTRONOMY-**

Copernicus 1473-1543- Copernicus was the son of a merchant and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. In Torun, West Prussia, he was elected as canon of Fromburk. He spoke Latin, Polish, German, Greek, and Italian, and most of his books were written in Latin. He studied mainly in Northern Italy and then studied Medicine at the University of Padua. He never finished his degree, though he recieved a doctorate in canon law. For a while, he worked with the leaders of Poland and Prussia to help stabiilize currency and began studying Astronomy. In one of his manuscripts, Commentariolus, he suggested that the sun was the center of the universe, and that the Earth and other planets orbitted the sun along circular paths while, the moon orbitted around the Earth. He did not publish his findings until he was near death.

Galileo Galilei (Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei) 1564-1642- Son of a famous Lutenist and music theorist. Galileo was interested in motion after studying pendulums, and he developed a pendulum clock. He wrote a book on motion which described his experiments such as dropping objects of different mass to see if one would fall faster than the other. One of Galileo's major contributions to astronomy was the telescope. His observations of the planets and the moon supported the Copernican Heliocentric system theory. He was censored by the church, and was found guilty of Heresy for his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Cheif World Systems, and died under house arrest.

Tycho Brahe and Kepler- Tycho was given money by the king of Denmark to build an observatory, and designed his own tools and scientific instruments. With these tools, Tycho and his assistants collected the most accurate data on the positions of the stars and planets. Tycho believed that the Earth was unmoving in the center of the universe and that the sun and moon orbitted around it. As the sun moved around the Earth, He believed that all other planets orbitted the sun and that the fixed stars lay on a celestial sphere. Kepler, Tycho's assistant, studied Copernicus's and Tycho's observations and concluded that the planets (including Earth) orbit around the sun on eliptical paths. He also discovered mathematical rules that affected the period and size of a planet's orbit around the sun.

Works Cited "Copernican Revolutions." //Renaissance Astronomy//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2010. []

"Galileo and the Inquisition." //The Galileo Project//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2010. []

"Paracelsus, Five Hundred Years: Three American Exhibits - Renaissance Humanism." //National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2010. [].

"Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim ( 1490 -1541 )." //Utopian surgery? The case against anaesthesia in surgery, dentistry and childbirth//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2010. [].

"Tycho and Kepler." //Renaissance Astronomy//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2010. []

"What alchemists got right about chemistry - The Boston Globe." //Boston.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2010. []

century, the last quarter of the. "Nicolaus Copernicus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." //Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2010. []