In the early 1800s the Newtonian concept of light as a particle was widely accepted without regards to further investigation or proof. Even though anomalies like the rainbow reflection pattern in bubble or Newton rings disproved this concept, most scientist did not have sufficient proof to disprove the decades of Newton’s work. But, using only two frames a piece of paper and some sunlight, Thomas Young discovered the true nature of light and how it reacts to other rays of light.
In the emerging Scientific Era, which partook in the late 1700s to early 1800s, scientific discovery and investigation of the natural sciences were a “social normality” for the emerging science population. Conducted in 1801, Young’s experiment and modulus
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This discovery proved that the light waves themselves work like waves, equally branching out of both slits and intersecting, creating both light fringes and dark fringes from the same right light source; this discovery proved that light also refracts and spreads like a puddle, thus the refracted fringes rather than edges. This puddle-like behavior also helped Young to postulate that since light act like a puddle, when two or more are intersected they cancel each other out or enhance the brightness based on the lights respective angle. These dark fringes were coined interference fringes, which were a result of the situation previously stated, when light waves “cancel” each other out. This interference pattern not only applies to slit experiments, but rather, any experiment that splits light into two equal waves that can cancel and enhance each other. The experiment also applies to wave-like particles like electrons and protons; protons bounce around like a beam of light and cancel and emphasize each other, while electrons, while classified as waves, act like particles and hit the paper. Young’s experiment helped him to develop a double slit formula, which is the wavelength of light equals the distance from the central fringe multiplied by the distance between the slits, divided by the order of the fringe multiplied by the length of the slit screen from the viewing screen. This formula can be used to measure the respective
Lisa Jardine’s Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution provides a comprehensive breakdown of the discoveries that defined the Scientific Revolution and the history behind them. The story of the scientific revolution truly begins with a separation between the Catholic Church and the denizens of Europe brought on by the Protestant Reformation. This separation led directly to the questioning of the church and what they deemed to be true. The growing suspicion of the church applied not only to the politics and religious views but the scientific “facts” the church was built upon. The suspicion of these scientific facts quickly grew to an open challenging of these facts, The Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution is something we have all studied in our grade school years and the discoveries of people such as Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei are well documented and arguably common knowledge but Jardine’s book Ingenious Pursuits encapsulates the scientific revolution in a new light. Jardine accomplishes this by telling the stories of some of the greatest achievements of the Scientific Revolution. These stories reveal the collaborations of some of histories most brilliant minds as well as the secrecy amongst them and uncover the motives that fueled many of these accomplishments.
B. Sir Isaac Newton used prisms to show that sunlight was made up of all the colors of the rainbow. This proved that the ancient Greeks ideas about light were wrong.
The general and widespread acceptance of Sir Isaac Newton’s models and laws may often be taken for granted, but this has not always been so. Throughout history, scientists and philosophers have built on each other’s theories to create improved and often revolutionary models. Although Newton was neither the first nor the last to bring major innovations to society, he was one of the most notable ones; many of his contributions are still in use today. With the formulation of his laws of motion, Sir Isaac Newton contributed to the downfall of Aristotelianism and provided a universal quantitative system for approximating and explaining a wide range of phenomena of space and the physics of motion, revolutionizing the study and understanding
Einstein has brought many insights of life including the theory of the speed of light, which has led to the special theory of relativity that molded the way science, is today. “For example, various experiments, including the Michelson-Morley experiment, failed to measure the expected changes in the speed of light relative to the motion of the Earth. Due to this Einstein recognized that light has a measured speed that is independent of the speed of the observer” (“Albert Einstein.” 4). “Einstein showed in 1907 that mass is related to energy by the famous equation E=mc^2, which indicates the enormous amount of energy that is stored as mass, some of which is released in radioactivity and nuclear radiations, for example in the sun” (4).This enabled Einstein to be able to start and finish the general theory of relativity.
"The growth of commerce and industry led to the technological advances, which in turn stimulated, and were stimulated by science.” (p. 403) The European scientific revolution was fueled by the blending of “liberal” and “servile” arts, in other words, science and technology. Because of the European expansion taking place throughout the world, new commerce and industries were advancing, creating the need for new technology and science. The theories and inventions that Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton provided were the fist major advances during the scientific revolution, and perhaps were the most profound.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a period of many changes in world of sciences. Usually the philosophes and researchers of the sciences were either supported or reprimanded by many aspects of life in these centuries. The work of scientists was affected by governments promoting, but also preventing, research of the sciences, religious bodies promoting or condemning the outcomes of experiments and theories and even merging outcomes to religious ideas, and also new relationships between scientists across Europe, but also with a neglect of women.
Chapters VI and VIII: The Scientific View of the World and the Age of Enlightenment
Since the 17th century, the scientific method has served as a memorable procedure for its ability to characterize aspects of natural science. Its reliance on sense and reason allowed it to become the backbone of research for scientists, meant to make the unknown into something better understood and explored. Even still, this tried and true method cannot be deemed completely concrete. In his passage from The Great Influenza, John M. Barry utilizes various rhetorical devices in his process of characterizing scientific research, to demonstrate the similarities between scientists and the early pioneers.
One of the most prolific eras in our world’s history is the Scientific Revolution. During this time men began to think outside the realm of possibility and delved themselves deep into the exciting unknown world of science. The innovative minds of these people churned out inventions like gunpowder and the printing press, as well as, inventive new ways of thinking like the scientific method. Aside from the inventors and innovators, there were also the publicists and writers without whom no one would know or understand the new ideas of the time. One such person was Margaret Cavendish who was born and raised in England. She received the same education that a lady during her time did. However, due to her husband, Sir Charles Cavendish, she was exposed to the world of science. The subject intrigued her so much that she ended up publishing her own theory on atoms. Though her atomic theory contains many scientific Renaissance ideals, it is still seen as a major contribution of thought during the Scientific Revolution.
As an emerging scientific culture swept throughout Western Europe, the influence of the Scientific Revolution became apparent through the countless scientific references in letters, newspapers and publications across the continent. By the 1620s, learned associations and scientific societies were developing across Europe, in cities such as Rome and Paris. In the 1640s this new thirst for scientific knowledge had spread to England, its influence present in many aspects of public life. With the publication of hundreds of books and pamphlets concerning the sciences and coffeehouse debates, such as those of Philosophical Lectures on Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics and Opticks”, the concepts behind the Scientific Revolution further circulated
Last Words- I wonder why Newton decided to wait 30 years before publishing the book Opticks. Because Newton changed his conclusion about how light particles hit a microscope, I wonder if it overall hurt his credibility. It seems that he did not fully commit to his own theories which I think is kind of weird.
Another conspicuity, besides the circles function as “inspirer”, was that “By the turn of the 19th century, it was common knowledge among the educated classes that scientists were trying to fathom the
After that theory scientists started Wondering about this theory and a lot of Scientists made up Models and conducted Experiments to Explain this Theory. In this report we will put our self’s inside Each scientist’s Shoe and see What has he discovered.
Next, Young tested how light worked in his Double Slit Experiment, which dealt with light and how it behaves when put through certain tests. Young tested some properties of light by shining it through boards with slits in them and using a blank screen on the other end of the slits. He started with a single slit on a board and shined light