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The '''Scientific Revolution''' is a name that some modern historians use to describe what they call the beginning of modern [[science]] in the mid-1500s. At that time, according to their theory, scientists began to develop the systematic use of [[hypotheses]], and to continually test them with [[observation]] and [[experimentation]]. Their best example is [[Copernicus]] publishing the [[Heliocentrism|heliocentric theory]] that the Earth revolves around the Sun, as opposed to the [[Geocentric theory|geocentric theory]] that Sun revolves around the Earth.<ref>Eg, see http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture10c.html</ref>

The '''Scientific Revolution''' is a name that some modern historians use to describe what they call the beginning of modern [[science]] in the mid-1500s. At that time natural philosophers (the term scientist was not coined until the 1800s) began to seriously challenge long established classical systems and in the 1700s developed the scientific method, the systematic use of [[hypotheses]], continually tested with [[observations]] and [[experimentation]]. Most historians typically point to [[Copernicus']] publishing of his [[Heliocentrism|heliocentric theory]] as the beginning of this revolution, although the actual starting date is debated.  The heliocentric theory stated that the Earth revolves around the Sun, as opposed to the [[Geocentric theory|geocentric theory]] that Sun revolves around the Earth.<ref>Eg, see http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture10c.html</ref>

In fact, Copernicus had no observations or experiments to show that his model was better than others, and his methods were not significantly more accurate than those of Ptolemy that had been in use older cosmological models for over a thousand years.  Rather, his system was indicative of a changing approach the analyzing the natural world: challenging the millenia-held beliefs of antiquity, such as the Ptolemaic and Aristotelian systems, and asserting the ability of natural-philosophers to improve upon them.

In fact, Copernicus had no observations or experiments to show that his model was better than others, and his methods were not significantly more accurate than those of Ptolemy that had been in use older cosmological models for over a thousand years.  Rather, his system was indicative of a changing approach the analyzing the natural world: challenging the millenia-held beliefs of antiquity, such as the Ptolemaic and Aristotelian systems, and asserting the ability of natural-philosophers to improve upon them.