parallels that exist between the history of the Copernican Revolution and the history of the development

 parallels that exist between the history of the Copernican Revolution and the history of the development

Abstract

The era of renaissance brought about various changes in the field of arts and scientific inquiries. Scientists explore as well as travelers, gathered knowledge from all corners of the world. Vestiges of classical philosophy that were preserved by religion were unraveled. Different scientific inquiries came to light as they battled through resistance from religion and other beliefs. The experimental hypothesis Aristarchus’ heliocentric was debated for the first time in educational levels. Scientists, especially the astronomers, took bold steps to ensure their discoveries have come to light. They presented undoubtedly evidence to prove the existence of the universe through the scientific point of view. This paper, however, examines the parallels that exist between the history of the Copernican Revolution and the history of the development and impact of special and general relativity. It also explores ways in which these two scientific inquiries differ from one another.

Introduction

Over five centuries ago, when the Middle Ages began paving the way for the renaissance, people lived and conducted their activities in the reality within which humans played a preeminent role. This implies that everything revolved around human beings and both physically and in the eyes of God. However, the theological perspective, as presented in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis that a supernatural being created the earth and the heaven above it did not provide all the answers. Different scientific viewpoints started to emerge, such as the cosmos model that was developed by the Greek philosopher Ptolemy in 140AD (Rusell, 2019). The model posited that the sun, moon, planets, and stars revolved around the earth in a circular orbit. In this era, people knew that the earth was static and the center of the universe.

The cosmological model had its flaws since even though the stars move smoothly along their fixed orbit, planets do not. They, however, wonder among the stars, thus their name planet, which refers to wonderer in Greek. They move in retrograde motion, which means they vary in speed, their orbit wobble, as well as reversing their direction pf travel (Russel, 2019). The scientific notion, during this era, asserted that planetary motion is based on cycles. Plato noted that heavenly bodies were governed by a different force that those that govern objects on the earth. With limited knowledge on the planetary motion, after the epicycles system provided insufficient evidence, more accurate data was collected by the medieval astronomers proposing more advanced epicycles. After this model failed, too, by adding more cycles until the system became more complex.

Even though the view of the universe was complicated as it appeared, it remained unchanged for 13 centuries. It was not until the early 16^th century when scientists made one of the boldest moves, the discovery of the Copernican revolution theory by a polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus thus putting forward a different radical model. Since differences between religion and science characterized the era, he did not see his publication until his deathbed in the 16^th century. Copernicus noted that the stars and other heavenly bodies along with the earth in their orbit. He observed that the earth was not static; instead, it was moving together with other planets and the stars. It rotates around its axis in a period of 24hours. Moreover, the movement of other heavenly bodies were the illusions created by the observer.

Proposing that the earth moved was obvious; thus, Copernicus further indicated that the wondering nature of the planets was due to planets orbiting the sun instead of the earth. This brought about the notion that the earth itself was just another planet as the rest of them revolving around the sun. However, this was not a new theory for Aristarchus-a Greek philosopher has proposed early that the earth and other planets moved around the sun in the year 270 BC. He suggested that geometrically, the sun was 20 times further away from the sun, thus making the sun much bigger than the earth. If only his view had taken root as those of Plato and Ptolemy, history would have taken another direction.

Religion was, however, a threat to Copernicus’s views, for he was a distinguished churchman. He weighed how the Vatican’s views on the earth being the center of the universe and how obstinately it held to that view. Therefore, suggesting his views would challenge not only the orthodox science but also the establishment of religious beliefs of reality (in that era, religion held a more magnificent view in swaying scientific perspective). He kept his opinions for a long time, and upon nearing his death, de decided to publish it. He saw the first copy of his publication on his deathbed. His views, therefore, remained hidden and forgotten for over eight decades when Italian Scientist and philosopher Galilei Galileo took an interest in planetary motion.

The Italian philosopher, Galileo, utilized the newly invented telescope in finding convincing evidence that supported the Copernicus model. He observed that the planet, Venus, had phases which seems like those of the moon when exposed to sun-it would lit. This would only happen if Venus were orbited the sun. Moreover, he noted that Jupiter had its moons around it. Therefore, thus, observations dispelled everything that the planets orbited the earth (Kuhn, 2003). Upon publishing his findings, Galileo was contacted by the Vatican, instructing him to retract his views. Fearing his life, he did retract. However, years later, he published the manuscript detailing his findings supporting the Copernicus model. He was again instructed by the church and was put on a watch preventing him from causing more trouble since his views contradicted the church’s faith. He was then tortured and put on house arrest until his death.

Parallel with Galileo’s observation, another Germany scientist and mathematician Johannes Kepler pierced together another puzzle in the Copernican model when he discovered that the model adhered to the platonic ideal of circular motion. Even though it was better than the old model, there were still irregularities. Kepler was fortunate enough being a student of other legendary philosophers like Danish astronomer who had made advances in astronomy (Kuhn, 2003). According to Rusell 2019, Kepler made his breakthrough by working in the motion of mars, which is recognized as the planet with the most troublesome orbit. Kepler argued that the movement of the planets would be accounted for if their orbits were ellipse instead of circles. Further, they move with changing speed rather than constants speeds.

Five decades later, Sir Isaac Newton observed that heavenly bodies were governed by the same laws that apply to the earth. He noted that any orbiting body would indeed move in an ellipse as discovered by Kepler early (Jones, 2019). The Copernicus model was completed with a series of scientific discoveries ranging from Copernicus himself to Sir Isaac Newton. The Copernicus principle, therefore, stated that the earth does not rest in a particular static motion in the universe rather, just like any other planet orbits in its axis.

The theory of relativity was developed by Robert Einstein in the onset of the 20^th century is one of the scientific breakthroughs that have a profound impact on the world. Not only did it change the understanding of the universe, but it also led to advancement in technology that continues to impact the modern world. As Howell 2017, noted, Einstein developed two theories, special and general relativity. Special relativity explains the relationship between space and time for objects moving at a constant speed on a straight line.

Historically, the development in the field of astronomy took centuries to perfect. Before Einstein, astronomy was understood using Newton’s three laws of motion. They include; first, objects that are in motion or at rest remain so unless acted upon by new external forces. Secondly, the force is equal to the change in momentum per change of time. For a constant mass, force equals mass times acceleration. Lastly, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (Howell, 2017). However, there were missing puzzles in the theory that Einstein came to fix decades later. Relativity was based on the premise that every observer of the universe sees the same laws of nature in operation.

In the 19^th century, the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell established that light is a wave with electrical and magnetic components. In this era, scientists believed that light traveled in a medium called ether. Two decades later, other scientists A.A. Michelson and chemist Edward Morley experimented on the assumption of light traveling in ether and found out that the speed of light remained constant. This led to missing information about light and its incongruence with classical mechanics (Howell, 2017).

According to classical physics, the light had a relative speed of zero but will, in turn, contradict Maxwell’s assumption of the speed of light. Another barrier with relative speed was it would show laws of electromagnet changing depending on the vantage point, which will also contradict classical physics.  Therefore, Einstein used the theory of special relativity to explain that simultaneity is relative. He noted that events that are simultaneous for one observer might not be on the other. He concluded that time flows differently according to the state of motion, therefore, distance if relative. He developed his famous equation (E=mc^2)

According to Einstein’s special relativity, laws of nature are the same in all objects that are moving at a constant velocity. The general relativity also noted that laws are all the same in all frames. The general relativity premise has been proven over and over again. NASA used gravitational pull to explain how the clock slower in orbit than on earth and that the earth gravitation drags space-time with it.

In conclusion, the field of astronomy has made significant steps in understanding the universe ranging from the Middle Age period to the contemporary. Different scientists have worked to perfect theories that explain the behaviors of the world. From Ptolemy in 140AD, Plato, Copernicus to Einstein in the 20^th century. There are differences in the theories of relativity and the Copernicus revolution. Previously, scientists believed the planets, including the sun, were moving around the earth as the earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus and other scientists after him proved that the earth, just like other planets, moved too. With Einstein’s theory of relativity, time flows differently according to the state of motion; thus, distance is relative.