Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Mabini Campus, Anonas, Sta. Mesa, Manila

WRITTEN REPORT ON
COPERNICAN THEORY

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for

Science, Technology, and Society

Submitted by:
ALTURAS, Claudia P.
ARANJUEZ, Lara Mae
ESTRIBER, Jasmin
ESGUERRA, Chenelyn
FERRER, Angel Grace
NODADO, Stephanie France H.
SALALILA, Lara Melissa
VILLANUEVA, Jefferson Ivan
ZARAGOZA, Ela

Bachelor of Science in Accountancy 1 – 1

Submitted to:
Rhodora Agote
Professor

August 13, 2018

 PART I:
LIFE OF COPERNICUS

February 19, 1473

 Nicolaus Copernicus is born in Torun, Poland. His Polish name is Mikolaj Kopernik.
 He is the fourth and youngest child born to Nicolaus Copernicus Sr. and Barbara Watzenrode, an
affluent copper merchant family in Torun, West Prussia.
 He came from a wealthy family which gave him the opportunity to pursue his studies.

Mid-1480s
 His father passed away.
 His maternal uncle, Bishop of Varmia Lucas Watzenrode, acted as his foster father.
 He made an effort to give the best form of education that he can give to Copernicus.

1491
 Copernicus studied painting and mathematics in the University of Cracow.
 During this time, he started to be engaged in studying the cosmos; thus, he began collecting books
regarding this matter.

Mid-decade
 Copernicus received a Frombork canon cathedral appointment, holding onto the job for the rest of
his life. It was a fortunate stroke: The canon's position afforded him the opportunity to fund the
continuation of his studies for as long as he liked.
 Working as a canon is very time consuming. He can only study during his free time.

1496
 Copernicus took leave and traveled to Italy, where he enrolled in a religious law program at the
University of Bologna. There, he met astronomer Domenico Maria Novara — a fateful encounter,
as the two began exchanging astronomical ideas and observations, ultimately becoming
housemates. Historian Edward Rosen described the relationship as follows: "In establishing close
contact with Novara, Copernicus met, perhaps for the first time in his life, a mind that dared to
challenge the authority of [astrologist Claudius Ptolemy] the most eminent ancient writer in his
chosen fields of study."

1501
 He studied practical medicine in the University of Padua but he did not finish his studies because
his 2-year leave is about to end.
1503
 Copernicus attended the University of Ferrara, where he took the necessary exams to earn his
doctorate in canon law. He hurried back home to Poland, where he resumed his position as canon
and rejoined his uncle at an Episcopal palace.
 Copernicus remained at the Lidzbark-Warminski residence for the next several years, working
and tending to his elderly, ailing uncle and exploring astronomy.
 Throughout the time he spent in Lidzbark-Warminski, Copernicus continued to study astronomy.
Among the sources that he consulted was Regiomontanus's 15th-century work Epitome of the
Almagest, which presented an alternative to Ptolemy's model of the universe and significantly
influenced Copernicus' research.

Around 1508
 Scholars believed that Copernicus had begun developing his own celestial model, a heliocentric
planetary system. During the second century A.D., Ptolemy had invented a geometric planetary
model with eccentric circular motions and epicycles, significantly deviating from Aristotle's idea
that celestial bodies moved in a fixed circular motion around the earth.
 In an attempt to reconcile such inconsistencies, Copernicus' heliocentric solar system named the
sun, rather than the earth, as the center of the solar system. Subsequently, Copernicus believed
that the size and speed of each planet's orbit depended on its distance from the sun.
 The Heliocentric theory of Copernicus is very controversial even though he is not the first one
who presented the idea that the sun is the center of the universe.
 Centuries prior, in the third century B.C., ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos had
identified the sun as a central unit orbited by a revolving earth. But a heliocentric theory was
dismissed in Copernicus' era because Ptolemy's ideas were far more accepted by the influential
Roman Catholic Church, which adamantly supported the earth-based solar system theory. Still,
Copernicus' heliocentric system proved to be more detailed and accurate than Aristarchus',
including a more efficient formula for calculating planetary positions.

1513
 Copernicus made his own observatory.

1514
 Copernicus wrote a book entitled Commentariolus (Latin for "Small Commentary"), a 40-page
manuscript which summarized his heliocentric planetary system and alluded to forthcoming
mathematical formulas meant to serve as proof.
The sketch set forth seven axioms, each describing an aspect of the heliocentric solar system:
1) Planets don't revolve around one fixed point;
2) The earth is not at the center of the universe;
3) The sun is at the center of the universe, and all celestial bodies rotate around it;
4) The distance between the Earth and Sun is only a tiny fraction of stars' distance from the Earth
and Sun;
 5) Stars do not move, and if they appear to, it is only because the Earth itself is moving;
6) Earth moves in a sphere around the Sun, causing the Sun's perceived yearly movement; and
7) Earth's own movement causes other planets to appear to move in an opposite direction.
 He gave copies or unpublished manuscripts of his book to his scholarly friends but he received
little to no response, wherein, a buzz began to build around Copernicus and his unconventional
theories.

1543
 Copernicus raised a fair share of controversy with Commentariolus and De Revolutionibus
Orbium Coelestium ("On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres"), with the second work
published right before his death. His critics claimed that he failed to solve the mystery of the
parallax — the seeming displacement in the position of a celestial body, when viewed along
varying lines of sight — and that his work lacked a sufficient explanation for why the Earth orbits
the Sun.

 Martin Luther opposed the heliocentric model of Copernicus. His underling, Lutheran minister
Andreas Osiander, quickly followed suit, saying of Copernicus, "This fool wants to turn the
whole art of astronomy upside down.”
 Osiander wrote a disclaimer that Copernicus’ theory is an abstract hypothesis which should not be
considered a true. He placed his disclaimer on the preface of Copernicus’ book. The readers
thought that Copernicus, himself, wrote the preface.
 In this case, Copernicus almost has no power or strength to defend his theory.
 Ironically, Copernicus had dedicated De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium to Pope Paul III. If
his tribute to the religious leader was an attempt to cull the Catholic Church's softer reception, it
was to no avail. The church ultimately banned De Revolutionibus in 1616, though the book was
eventually removed from the list of forbidden reading material.

May 24, 1543

 In May of 1543, mathematician and scholar Georg Joachim Rheticus presented Copernicus with
a copy of a newly published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. Suffering the aftermath of a
recent stroke, Copernicus was said to have been clutching the book when he died in his bed on
May 24, 1543 in Frombork, Poland.

1616
 Decades after his death, the Catholic church banned the work of Copernicus because they are
much in favour of Ptolemy’s geocentric theory.

Source: https://www.biography.com/people/nicolaus-copernicus-9256984
 PART II:
INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING

Copernicus reinforced the process of finding new explanations, which would lead to the work of
Kepler and Galileo. Their work led to the awakening of the intellectual minds of other scientists and it
raised many new questions and theories about the universe. His book, De revolutionibus orbium
coelestium ("On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres"),, published in 1543, laid the foundations for a
revolution in how people would view the world and its place in the universe.

Danish Astronomer Tycho Brahe along with Johannes Kepler supports the heliocentric model.
After Brahe’s death Kepler built upon his work and in 1609 he published the book “New Astronomy”,
which introduced the laws of planetary motion; The Law of Orbits (All planets move in elliptical orbits,
with the sun at one focus), The Law of Areas (A line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal
areas in equal times) and The Law of Periods (The square of the period of any planet is proportional to
the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit).

Galileo Galilei who had been studying the principles of motion, read Kepler’s work “New
Astronomy” that same year and he was inspired to make his own planetary observation, he had learned of
the invention of a scientific instrument that magnifies distant objects for observation, and he set out to
build his own devise, called the telescope. The telescope forever changed astronomy by allowing
scientists to observe celestial objects in greater detail.

The scientific community was awakened due to Copernican theory and they turned away from the
ancient ideas that were based in religious and cultural superstition such as the geocentric solar system.
They instead relied on observable and measureable evidence to construct their theories.