Renaissance+Science


 * Printing Press || Heliocentric Theory || The Reason For Rainbows ||
 * [[image:kellibmusesam/349700w.jpg width="308" height="190" align="center"]] || [[image:kellibmusesam/360476w.jpg width="301" height="225" align="center"]] || [[image:kellibmusesam/rainbow.jpg width="352" height="216"]] ||
 * The picture above is of the Library of Congress. Johannes Gutenberg, credited with the invention of movable metal type, examines printed copy in his workshop. The innovation of movable type spread rapidly throughout Europe during the second half of the 15th century. The printing press revolutionized communication by making it possible for the first time to distribute documents to a large number of people in a short amount of time. The first book printed by Gutenberg was the Bible, a three-volume work completed ca. 1455. The printing press facilitated the dissemination of knowledge---the exchange of ideas was now much simpler and much quicker. An increasing number of books meant a larger audience of readers, which meant an increased demand for books. By 1480, 110 European towns had printing shops; by 1500, 236 European towns had printing shops. Eventually, for the first time ever, books were available to average people, at least those who could read and afford to purchase books. Once Protestant reformers began translating the Bible into vernacular languages, the common people had access to the scriptures and the opportunity to interpret their meanings for themselves. The effects of the invention of the printing press are impossible to measure. However, it is safe to say that without it, all subsequent history would have been radically different. || The picture above is an engraving from the 17th century saying the sun is the center of the universe like the heliocentric theory proposed in the 16- century Polish cleric and astronomer Nicolas Copernicus. According to Ptolemy, an astronomer who lived in Egypt in the second century A.D., Earth was an immobile entity around which the Sun and all other planets circled. This system of scientific belief of placing the Earth at the center if the Universe is called the geocentric system. IN the 16th century, a Polish theologian and astronomer challenged the geocentric system. Using an astronomical theory he had developed, Nicholas Copernicus proposed that it was the Sun that remained stationary while Earth, along with the Moon and other planets, revolved around it. This new explanation for planetary activity was called the heliocentric system. For hundreds of years, great theological men of science had devoted themselves to showing not only that the geocentric theory was supported by the Bible but also that it supported the Bible itself. Looking up into the sky, it was obvious that the Sun, stars, and Moon moved around Earth in quantifiable cycles. || In the early 14th century, a German Dominican monk named Theodoric of Freiburg was intrigued by rainbows. He rejected the traditional and mythical explanations for the colorful arches and developed a possible idea about their source. To test his hypothesis, he used a crystal, a bit of water, and some parchment to devise a series of experiments. Through observation, he was able to conclude that rainbows are caused by light refraction in droplets of water suspended in the air. Not only was he able to discover the cause, but he was also able to deduce that the position of the water droplets affected the color produced by light refraction. Theodoric had a question about a natural phenomenon and an idea of how it might be occurring. He believed that the rainbow was the result of some type of interaction between light and water, so he developed a series of tests to observe some of those interactions. His observations of physical results allowed him to come up with a physical explanation for what had been ascribed to magic and myth up to that time. Theodoric had used the scientific method. ||

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