Nicolaus

Copernicus
“Those things which I am saying now may be
obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their
proper place.”
(1473–1543)
 Nicolaus Copernicus
• He was born on February 19, 1473 and was the
youngest of the four children of Nicolaus Copernicus, Sr.
• He was a mathematician, an astronomer a canon (a
member of the Frombork Cathedral in Poland) and a
doctor. (Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy, 2004)
• He proposed the heliocentric model in which the sun
was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth
revolved around it.
• He used thought experiment in his studies,
observations and conclusion.
What is a Thought Experiment?
Thought experimentsthese are devices of the
imagination which are employed for various purposes
‘visualizable’ or ‘picturable’
are communicated in narrative form,
frequently with diagrams
the results of scientific thought experiments
may be subjected to further empirical testing.
 thought experiments are like real
experiments that something often gets manipulated
Examples of thought experiment:
1. Galileo's falling bodies
(The Laboratory of the Mind: Thought
Experiments in the Natural Sciences by
James Robert Brown, 1991)
Galileo Galilei is one of the masters of
thought experiments and this is one of the
best examples of thought experiment.

-How would you imagine that a heavy

cannon ball is attached to a light musket ball?
-Which falls the fastest?

Answer: The balls fall at the same speed;

mass doesn't affect an object's acceleration
 The Heliocentric model and the
Copernican Revolution
• Heliocentric model - the sun was stationary in the center of the
universe and the earth revolved around it.
• There are 3 incorrect ideas held back the development of modern
astronomy from the time of Aristotle until the 16th and 17th century:
-the assumption that the Earth was the center of the universe
-the assumption of uniform circular motion in the heavens
-the assumption that objects in the heavens were made from a
perfect, unchanging substance not found on Earth
• Copernicus challenged the 1st assumption, but not the 2nd
assumption. (He was unlikely revolutionary)
• Copernicus was strongly influenced by
a book entitled Epitome by Johannes
Mueller which was published on 1496.
This book includes observations about
the heavens and the earlier works of
Ptolemy. 
• Copernicus’ ideas and model about the
universe was completed in 1510.
Works of Copernicus:
 Commentariolus
(Little Commentary)

De revolutionibus
orbium coelestium (On
the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Spheres) –
published on 1543 
• In his book, he wanted a model of the
universe in which everything moved
around a single center at unvarying
rates (Gribbin, 2003).
• In his model, the model of the earth
together with the planets and the sun
are arranged into a logical sequence.
• There are also two planetary motions:
the orbits of Venus and Mercury lay
inside the orbit of the Earth (in short
these 2 are closer two the sun); and
the orbits of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn
lay outside the earth’s orbit (in short
they are farther away from the sun)
The planetary motions explains that all planets,
including the Earth, move around the Sun in the
same direction.
Then the planets that are closer to the Sun or the
inner planets moves in the orbit the Sun faster
than we do.
And the planets that are far from the Sun or the
outer planets moves in the orbit of the Sun
more slowly than we do.
 Problems of Heliocentrism or the
Heliocentric Model
• The stars cannot be placed in a fixed position like crystals in
a distant sphere.
• The model was judged to be heretic or it contradicts the
Christian doctrine, therefore it was an unacceptable idea to
be taught to Catholics.
• The Catholic Church banned the Coperinican
model/Heliocentric model and was ignored for the rest of
the 16th century.