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Seventeenth-Century Theories of the Tides as a Gauge of Scientific Change

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Book cover The Reception of the Galilean Science of Motion in Seventeenth-Century Europe

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science ((BSPS,volume 239))

Abstract

What causes ocean water to rise and fall between high tide and low tide levels twice a day at sea ports and shorelines? Over the course of the seventeenth century, European natural philosophers began to believe that the “flux and reflux of the sea” could be a very meaningful physical phenomenon. Their interest was stirred by the debate over Copernicus and the idea that the earth rotated on its own axis and orbited around the sun. The unsolved problem of the cause of the tides proved to be productive subject matter for Copernican and anti-Copernican authors alike. It was most productive of all, perhaps, for Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton.

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References

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Authors
  1. Wallace Hooper
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Radboud University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Carla Rita Palmerino  & J. M. M. H. Thijssen  & 

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© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Hooper, W. (2004). Seventeenth-Century Theories of the Tides as a Gauge of Scientific Change. In: Palmerino, C.R., Thijssen, J.M.M.H. (eds) The Reception of the Galilean Science of Motion in Seventeenth-Century Europe. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 239. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2455-9_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2455-9_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6658-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-2455-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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