Hello!

I’m going to present to you the importance of the Copernican revolution and how it brought great
impact on the development of science and technology.

As you probably know, the Copernican Revolution is the shift in the field of astronomy, from geocentric
understanding of the universe, with Earth as the center, to a heliocentric understanding, with the Sun as
the center. The shift was a drastic change in scientific thought in the field of astronomy, replacing the
Greek view that had dominated science for almost 2,000 years.

It was the most significant period of discovery and growth of the sciences in the whole of history. It is
when modern science truly came to fruition. This shift marked the beginning of a broader Scientific
Revolution that set the foundations of modern science and allowed science to flourish.

Unclear concepts and unanswered questions from the geocentric model are explained much more
simply. Greeks couldn't find a satisfactory explanation to the retrograde motion of the planets, like how
Mars would occasionally have a backward movement. This revolution introduced the new model when
Copernicus found out that earth isn't really the center and mars do not revolve around it. Mars and
Earth are both orbiting around the sun and that explains the backward movement.

Through the heliocentric model of Copernicus, retrograde motion of planets is naturally explained.
Retrograde motions occur naturally if planets beyond from the Sun move more slowly. As Earth “laps”
Mars, Mars appears to go backward as seen by observers on Earth, comparing it to the scenario of a car
overtaking another car. It's just an illusion that Mars is moving backward.

Another significance of the Copernican Revolution is the publication of books about the study of
astronomy. A book of Copernicus, with the English translation of Six Books Concerning the Revolutions
of the Heavenly Orbs”) that was published in 1543, was widely read and used as a basis by mathematical
astronomers because of its mathematical techniques.

And in 1551 the German astronomer Erasmus Reinhold published a book, with the English Translation of
Prutenic Tables, computed by Copernican methods. The tables were more accurate and more up-to-
date than their 13th-century predecessor and became indispensable to both astronomers and
astrologers.

Although lacking if we'll analyze it today, this revolution served as a stepping stone and formed a strong
foundation on the improvement in astronomy. It introduced new and reliable study about the heavenly
bodies and became a standard reference for advanced problems in astronomical research.

Now, let’s proceed with the developments in technologies, what was used before and what was
developed through the years that has passed.

Here are the basic observational instruments used by Copernicus, descriptions of which may be found in
his book, On the Revolutions, and were copies of the ones presented in the book Almagest of Ptolemy.

They were

solar quadrant, which is an instrument that is used to measure angles up to 90°. Different versions of
this instrument could be used to calculate various readings, such as longitude, latitude, and time of day.
armillary astrolabe - the most complex instrument used in astronomy of that time. The elegant rings
and bands of an armillary sphere symbolize the astronomy of the past. With the Earth located at the
center, the rings trace out what an observer sees in the night sky without a telescope. The astrolabe was
a sophisticated time-telling instrument of late antiquity. It was an all-in-one tool for calculating the
position of the Sun and various stars.

And the parallactic instrument – Also known as parallactic rulers. It was used for determining altitudes
of heavenly bodies. It is used to determine the zenith location, or the imaginary and highest point
directly "above" a particular location of a celestial body, and also used to determine the parallax, or the
apparent movement when viewed from different positions, of the Moon.

Other astronomical instruments that arise are;

The mechanical planetarium, one of the most popular scientific tools of the 1700's, displayed the
motion of the planets around the Sun. The operation of the device's carefully crafted mechanisms
inspired awe and wonder at the sense of the Universe's divinely imposed stable order. Astronomical
knowledge was a mark of education and social status and the ownership of a planetaria gave material
evidence of such status.

The development of telescopes allowed the discovery of many stars invisible to the naked eye. It wasn't
really invented for astronomical purposes, but Galileo improved it to be used in observing the
environment beyond us.

Printed information sheets called Broadsides are used to educate the public on unusual astronomical
events, such as comets and eclipses. It is one of the jobs for astronomers in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The broadside presented, specifically explains the science behind a total eclipse of the Sun.

Optics are also invented, observatories added telescopes to their collection of instruments. Telescopes
serve to 1) magnify nearby planets, to study surface features, 2) collect light to detect faint stars and 3)
transfer light to recording instruments, such as a photographic plate to take a picture, or to a
spectrograph to take a spectrum.

Due to effects of the atmosphere, telescopes are typically located on mountain tops because

they are dry sites, few clouds are visible,

high above the thick currents of air so the images are clear and steady and

to allow more ultraviolet and infrared photons which are blocked by lower atmosphere.

Optical astronomy has dominated for centuries until the development of space telescopes. To observe
at high energies (gamma and x-rays) or in the far-infrared and microwave regions of the spectrum, the
telescope must be located above the Earth's atmosphere.

Here are some of the examples, this orbiting infrared telescope, launched in 1994:

The AXAF x-ray telescope, currently in orbit:

and a shuttle launched gamma-ray telescope

Radio telescopes gather radio waves from stellar objects. Since radio waves are reflected by metal, they
are typically made of solid aluminum or steel mesh and can be made very large.

The difference wavelength of the light in the radio region (centimeters and meters) means a different
technology to analyze them. In the case of radio astronomy, a sophisticated radio receiver is used such
that the power of the telescope is determined by the area of the antenna and the sensitivity of the
electronics.

Radio telescopes can also use the phenomenon of interference to obtain high resolution. Many
antennas, working together, measure the interference patterns from distant sources and combine them
to produce highly detailed maps in the radio region of the spectrum.

All of these developments in science and technology happened because Copernicus started the
Copernican Revolution. Copernicus paved the way.

Here are the references I used.

Thank you for listening!

http://copernicus.torun.pl/en/science/astronomy/5/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Copernican-Revolution

https://blogs.umass.edu/p139ell/2012/11/19/the-renaissance-and-the-scientific-revolution/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus/Copernicuss-astronomical-work

https://www.britannica.com/science/Scientific-Revolution

https://www.britannica.com/science/Scientific-Revolution

https://www.britannica.com/science/universe/The-Copernican-revolution

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast122/lectures/lec07.html