Nevertheless , during the sixteenth century several factors were to be instrumental in establishing those secure foundations on which the brilliant scientific achievements of the succeeding century could be built .sx First among these factors was a more emphatic appeal for acceptance of that philosophical outlook which has been so favourable to progress in science , namely , recourse to observation and experiment , and substitution of rationality for authority .sx In 1536 Peter Ramus ( 1515-1572 ) started the revolt against Aristotle's tyranny with his M.A. thesis at Paris University that " all that Aristotle has said is " .sx Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus voiced the same sentiment in his Zodiacus vitae ( Venice 1531 ) in which he affirmed :sx " 1Whatever Aristotle saith , or any of them all , I passe not for :sx since from the truth they many times doe fall .sx " In 1560 Barnaby Googe published his English translation of this work which contained , amidst a mass of characteristic moralising , references to the vacuum , light , the elements , heat , motion , etc. His translation was widely read as a textbook in Elizabethan grammar schools .sx The scientific attitude is also discernible in the writings of Leonard and Thomas Digges .sx From passages in the Pantometria ( 1571 ) it would appear that Leonard Digges , of University College , Cambridge , was conversant with the principles of the telescope .sx In his Dedicatory Epistle to the Stratioticus ( 1579 ) Thomas Digges , who also studied at Cambridge , mentions " 1having spent many of my yeares in reducing the Sciences Mathematicall from Demonstrative Contemplations , to Experimentall Actions .sx . " Dr. John Dee ( 1527-1608 ) , of St John's College , Cambridge , likewise sings the praises of Scientia Experimentalis in his Preface to an English translation of Euclid ( 1570) .sx In 1550 Dee read public lectures on Euclid's elements " mathematice@3 , physice@3 , et Pythagorice@3 " in the College of Rheims .sx His audience became so large that many had to listen at the windows .sx Dee also wrote on mechanics , perspective and on " burning mirrors .sx " The brilliant achievements of Galileo , of Stevin , of Gilbert and of others were the fruits of putting into practice of this " modern " experimental scientific attitude .sx The creation of the science of dynamics as we know it today is principally due to Galileo ( 1564-1642 ) , Professor of Mathematics at Pisa and Padua Universities .sx He pointed out that all bodies fell at the same rate and that the distance covered by falling bodies varied as the square of the time .sx He showed that the path of a projectile was a parabola , and he understood centrifugal force .sx He gave precise definitions of momentum , velocity and kinetic energy .sx It was he who formulated the principle of the parallelogram of forces , and he was familiar with what later came to be known as Newton's first two laws of motion .sx Besides discovering the isochronism of the pendulum , he showed that the time of oscillation varied as the square root of its length .sx William Gilbert ( 1540-1603 ) , " the father of the magnetic philosophy , " was the author of that great textbook of magnetism and electricity , the " De Magnete , " which was published in London in 1600 .sx His contempt for the methods of the schoolmen crops up everywhere in this book .sx He is full of the importance of experimentation , as for instance , when he warns that " men of acute intelligence , without actual knowledge of facts , and in the absence of experiment , easily slip and err .sx " Gilbert was the first to use the now familiar terms " electric " , " electric " , magnetic " pole" , etc. By the time of the sixteenth century considerable industrial and commercial expansion was taking place , and this resulted in a greater demand by the rising middle classes for a more utilitarian education biased towards science and mathematics , for substitution of a more realistic approach to life for the aloofness of the cloister .sx The increasing tempo of the new economic world could no longer afford to dispense with mechanics , hydrostatics , optics , navigation , etc. It was in order to cater for the needs of a society growing increasingly more conscious of the vital part that science could play in technology that Gresham's College was founded in London in 1596 for gratuitous instruction in the seven liberal arts and sciences .sx The celebrated physicist Robert Hooke was Professor of Geometry here for a time .sx Lectures were given at the College- which , incidentally , was the first home of the Royal Society- till 1768 , when they were delivered at the Royal Exchange until 1841 , the year when the present Gresham College was erected .sx It was for precisely the same reason that during the second half of the century a new type of school , or academy , came into existence to give a wider education , including practical mathematics and physics , than that provided by the conservative public and grammar schools whose sole preoccupation was with the classics .sx Sir Humphrey Gilbert ( 1539-1583 ) proposed the erection of such an Academy in London in 1572 .sx By now the discovery of printing had come into its own and this led to the writing , in the vernacular , of numerous popular compendia of knowledge .sx The numerous editions through which many of these compendia and encyclopaedia went indicates the thirst of the people of those times for knowledge .sx The best known of these was probably the " Pearl Philosophic " " Margarita " ) of Gregorius Reisch , which was first printed in 1503 .sx The subjects of astronomy , natural philosophy , chemistry , optics , etc. , are treated in this encyclopaedia which was illustrated and intended as a textbook for young students .sx In his book on " Natural Magic " Giambatista Porta ( c. 1541-1615 ) dealt with such topics as optical experiments , mirrors , experiments on statics such as those of Nicholas of Cusa , and pneumatic experiments similar to those of Hero .sx An English edition of this book was published in London in 1658 .sx The Reformation , too , had an influence on the progress of science .sx The refusal to submit to a single spiritual authority carried over to other fields and helped to emancipate physics from Aristotle's " tyranny" .sx In 1535 the students of St. John's College were permitted to receive instruction from a lecturer in Natural Philosophy , who was to receive two shillings a week , half that sum being paid by the College and the other half by his audience .sx The Edwardian Code of July 1549 enjoined that disputations were to be held regularly .sx The disputations in mathematics , dialectics and in natural philosophy were to be held on Thursdays , Fridays and Sundays .sx We are given some idea of the nature of these university disputations from Izaak Walton's life of Sir Henry Wotton ( 1568-1639) .sx He writes that Sir Henry :sx " 1about the nineteenth year of his age , he did proceed Master of Arts , and at that time read in Latine three Lectures de Oculo :sx wherein he having described the Form , the Motion , the curious Compositione of the Eye and demonstrated , how of these very many , every humour and nerve performs its distinct office .sx . After these Observations he fell to dispute this Optique Question , Whether we see by the Emission of the Beams from within , or Reception of the Species from without .sx " By the visitation of 1549 a Reader in Natural Philosophy was provided for All Souls College , Oxford .sx In 1551 Michael Renninger ( or Rhanger , 1530-1609 ) was appointed to lecture on natural philosophy at Magdalen College , Oxford .sx The sixteenth century is significant for the publication of several educational treatises that paved the way for a new presentation of studies not only in the university curricula but also in that of the schools and which encouraged realism in education in distinction to scholastic formalism .sx The writings of Ramus , Francis Bacon , Sir Thomas Elyot , Rabelais , Vives and Melanchthon all catch a glimpse of the future reserved to scientific education , to a study of Nature by inductive speculation , to a study of things instead of the worship of words .sx For the traditional quadrivium Ramus would substitute mathematics , physics ( including astronomy ) , metaphysics and ethics .sx The textbook to be used in physics was his own treatise , " Studies in Physics , " which , in spite of his criticism of Aristotle , was based on the latter's Physics , on Pliny's Natural History and on Virgil's Georgics .sx In the De Tradendis Disciplinis ( 1531 ) Vives advocated the study of physics , even in the schools .sx But the subject still needed to be systematised and simplified before it lent itself to instruction of the young .sx Chapter =3 .sx THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY .sx As a result of the genuine scientific curiosity of the true natural philosopher , of the curiosity of the gentleman of leisure in search of diversions , of the Puritans' looking at the phenomena of God's creation , and of the monetary interests of the manufacturer , the miner , the engineer , the alchemist , physics made great advances .sx Experimentation increased from a mere trickle into what was soon to become a flood ; in fact , so much so that science was in danger of being reduced " to a worship and idolisation of experiment as an end in itself .sx " The achievements of earlier physicists were crowned by the brilliant work of Galileo and Torricelli in Italy , of Guericke in Germany , of Huygens and Snell in Holland , of Mariotte and Descartes in France , and of Boyle , Hooke , Halley and Newton in England .sx Their advances marked the end of the era of doubt and confusion and proclaimed the birth of " modern " physics .sx Newton's ( 1642-1727 ) " Principia " was published in 1687 in Latin and in this he defined mass , force , momentum , acceleration , etc. , clearly for the first time , and worked out his laws of motion .sx In 1668 Newton constructed the first reflecting telescope .sx Eight years earlier he had begun his experiments on the incidence of white light on a prism .sx Newton also investigated the colours of thin plates and coloured rings , the bending of light and the coloured fringes at narrow slits .sx His observations on double refraction in Iceland spar laid the foundations for the theory of the polarisation of light .sx In the controversy over the theory of light Newton threw his great authority on the emission theory , with the result that the wave theory of Hooke and Huygens was in abeyance for over a century .sx It was in 1658 that Robert Boyle ( 1627-91 ) invented his improved air pump with which he performed his classic experiments on the weight , pressure and elasticity of the air , and on the part played by air in respiration and in acoustics .sx Boyle encouraged study of experimental physics by writing ( in 1663 ) " 1Some considerations touching the Usefulnesse of Experimental Naturall Philosophy .sx . by way of Invitation to the Study of it , " and by writing ( in 1664 ) " Experiments and Considerations touching colours " in which he deliberately gave a simple and popular outline of the subject in order to encourage more readers , including the fair sex .sx Boyle's assistant , Robert Hooke , propounded his law- ut tensio , sic vis- about 1658 .sx In 1666 he measured the force of gravity by the swinging of a pendulum .sx The fixing of the thermometric zero at the freezing point of water is due to him .sx In 1666 he demonstrated magnetic lines of force using iron filings and a small movable magnetic needle .sx In his Micrographia ( 1665 , p. 7 ) he advocated increased study of the new experimental physics in the place of " discourse and disputation , " since :sx " 1These being the dangers in the process of humane Reason , the remedies of them all can only proceed from the real , the mechanical , the experimental Philosophy .sx " Remarkable advances were also made in applied science , e.g. the invention of a steam engine by Edward Somerset ( 1601-67 ) , second Marquis of Worcester , though the first practical steam engine was made only in 1698 by Thomas Savery ( 1650-1715) .sx Scientific instruments were now available on a large scale for the first time .sx Among these may be mentioned barometers , thermometers , telescopes , microscopes , the 6camera obscura , lenses and prisms .sx A new profession- that of mathematical and scientific instrument maker- arose to supply the demands of the new experimental sciences .sx James Moxon , who lived on Ludgate Hill , was one such ; another was John Yarwell , who sold his scientific apparatus at " The Archimedes and Three Golden Prospects near the great North-Door in St. Paul's Church-yard , London .sx " The advances in science and in applied science were largely the fruits of substituting observation and experiment for dogmatism and for the a-priori methods of Aristotelian physics .sx