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 . 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 . in 1536 Peter Ramus ( 1515-1572 ) started the revolt against Aristotle &apos;s tyranny with his M.A thesis at Paris University that all that Aristotle has said is false . Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus voiced the same sentiment in his Zodiacus vitae ( Venice 1531 ) in which he affirmed : whatever Aristotle saith , or any of them all , I passe not for : since from the truth they many times doe fall . 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 . the scientific attitude is also discernible in the writings of Leonard and Thomas Digges . from passages in the pantometria ( 1571 ) it would appear that Leonard Digges , of University College , Cambridge , was conversant with the principles of the telescope . in his dedicatory epistle to the stratioticus ( 1579 ) Thomas Digges , who also studied at Cambridge , mentions having spent many of my yeares in reducing the sciences mathematicall from demonstrative contemplations , to experimentall actions &amp;hellip; . Dr John Dee ( 1527-1608 ) , of St John &apos;s College , Cambridge , likewise sings the praises of Scientia Experimentalis in his preface to an English translation of Euclid ( 1570 ) . in 1550 Dee read public lectures on Euclid &apos;s elements mathematic&amp;egrave; , physic&amp;egrave; , et Pythagoric&amp;egrave; in the College of Rheims . his audience became so large that many had to listen at the windows . Dee also wrote on mechanics , perspective and on burning mirrors . 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 . 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 . 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 . he showed that the path of a projectile was a parabola , and he understood centrifugal force . he gave precise definitions of momentum , velocity and kinetic energy . 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 &apos;s first two laws of motion . besides discovering the isochronism of the pendulum , he showed that the time of oscillation varied as the square root of its length . 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 . his contempt for the methods of the schoolmen crops up everywhere in this book . 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 . Gilbert was the first to use the now familiar terms electric force , electric attraction , 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 . 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 &apos;s College was founded in London in 1596 for gratuitous instruction in the seven liberal arts and sciences . the celebrated physicist Robert Hooke was Professor of geometry here for a time . 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 . 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 . Sir Humphrey Gilbert ( 1539-1583 ) proposed the erection of such an Academy in London in 1572 . 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 . the numerous editions through which many of these compendia and encyclopaedia went indicates the thirst of the people of those times for knowledge . the best known of these was probably the pearl philosophic ( margarita philosophica ) of Gregorius Reisch , which was first printed in 1503 . 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 . 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 . an English edition of this book was published in London in 1658 . the reformation , too , had an influence on the progress of science . the refusal to submit to a single spiritual authority carried over to other fields and helped to emancipate physics from Aristotle &apos;s tyranny . in 1535 the students of St John &apos;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 . the Edwardian code of July 1549 enjoined that disputations were to be held regularly . the disputations in mathematics , dialectics and in natural philosophy were to be held on Thursdays , Fridays and Sundays . we are given some idea of the nature of these university disputations from Izaak Walton &apos;s life of Sir Henry Wotton ( 1568-1639 ) . he writes that Sir Henry : about the nineteenth year of his age , he did proceed Master of arts , and at that time read in Latine three lectures de Oculo : 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 &amp;hellip; . 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 . by the visitation of 1549 a Reader in natural philosophy was provided for all souls College , Oxford . in 1551 Michael Renninger ( or Rhanger , 1530-1609 ) was appointed to lecture on natural philosophy at Magdalen College , Oxford . 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 . 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 . for the traditional quadrivium Ramus would substitute mathematics , physics ( including astronomy ) , metaphysics and ethics . 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 &apos;s physics , on Pliny &apos;s natural history and on Virgil &apos;s Georgics . in the De Tradendis Disciplinis ( 1531 ) Vives advocated the study of physics , even in the schools . but the subject still needed to be systematised and simplified before it lent itself to instruction of the young . chapter 3 . the seventeenth century . 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 &apos; looking at the phenomena of God &apos;s creation , and of the monetary interests of the manufacturer , the miner , the engineer , the alchemist , physics made great advances . 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 . 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 . their advances marked the end of the era of doubt and confusion and proclaimed the birth of modern physics . Newton &apos;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 . in 1668 Newton constructed the first reflecting telescope . eight years earlier he had begun his experiments on the incidence of white light on a prism . Newton also investigated the colours of thin plates and coloured rings , the bending of light and the coloured fringes at narrow slits . his observations on double refraction in Iceland spar laid the foundations for the theory of the polarisation of light . 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 . 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 . Boyle encouraged study of experimental physics by writing ( in 1663 ) some considerations touching the usefulnesse of experimental naturall philosophy &amp;hellip; . 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 . Boyle &apos;s assistant , Robert Hooke , propounded his law - ut tensio , sic vis - about 1658 . in 1666 he measured the force of gravity by the swinging of a pendulum . the fixing of the thermometric zero at the freezing point of water is due to him . in 1666 he demonstrated magnetic lines of force using iron filings and a small movable magnetic needle . in his micrographia ( 1665 , p 7 ) he advocated increased study of the new experimental physics in the place of discourse and disputation , since : these 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 . 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 ) . scientific instruments were now available on a large scale for the first time . among these may be mentioned barometers , thermometers , telescopes , microscopes , the camera obscura , lenses and prisms . a new profession - that of mathematical and scientific instrument maker - arose to supply the demands of the new experimental sciences . 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 &apos;s Church-yard , London . 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 . 