DATES AND SUMMARY OF FACTS FOR LECTURE I
Physical Science of the Ancients. Thales 640 B.C., Anaximander 610 B.C., Pythagoras 600 B.C., Anaxagoras 500 B.C., Eudoxus 400 B.C., Aristotle 384 B.C., Aristarchus 300 B.C., Archimedes 287 B.C., Eratosthenes 276 B.C., Hipparchus 160 B.C., Ptolemy 100 A.D.
Science of the Middle Ages. Cultivated only among the Arabs; largely in the forms of astrology, alchemy, and algebra.
Return of Science to Europe. Roger Bacon 1240, Leonardo da Vinci 1480, (Printing 1455), Columbus 1492, Copernicus 1543.
A sketch of Copernik's life and work. Born 1473 at Thorn in Poland. Studied mathematics at Bologna. Became an ecclesiastic. Lived at Frauenburg near mouth of Vistula. Substituted for the apparent motion of the heavens the real motion of the earth. Published tables of planetary motions. Motion still supposed to be in epicycles. Worked out his ideas for 36 years, and finally dedicated his work to the Pope. Died just as his book was printed, aged 72, a century before the birth of Newton. A colossal statue by Thorwaldsen erected at Warsaw in 1830.