Editing Space (section)

=== Galileo ===
[[Galileo Galilei|Galilean]] and [[René Descartes|Cartesian]] theories about space, matter, and motion are at the foundation of the [[Scientific Revolution]], which is understood to have culminated with the publication of [[Isaac Newton|Newton]]'s ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia Mathematica]]'' in 1687.<ref name="Huggett-1999">{{Cite book|title=Space from Zeno to Einstein: classic readings with a contemporary commentary|date=1999|publisher=MIT Press|editor=Huggett, Nick |isbn=978-0-585-05570-1|location=Cambridge, MA |oclc=42855123|bibcode = 1999sze..book.....H}}</ref> Newton's theories about space and time helped him explain the movement of objects. While his theory of space is considered the most influential in physics, it emerged from his predecessors' ideas about the same.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Janiak|first=Andrew|year=2015|title=Space and Motion in Nature and Scripture: Galileo, Descartes, Newton|journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science|volume=51|pages=89–99|pmid=26227236|doi=10.1016/j.shpsa.2015.02.004|bibcode=2015SHPSA..51...89J}}</ref>

As one of the pioneers of [[modern science]], Galileo revised the established [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] and [[Ptolemy|Ptolemaic]] ideas about a [[Geocentric model|geocentric]] cosmos. He backed the [[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernican]] theory that the universe was [[Heliocentrism|heliocentric]], with a stationary Sun at the center and the planets—including the Earth—revolving around the Sun. If the Earth moved, the Aristotelian belief that its natural tendency was to remain at rest was in question. Galileo wanted to prove instead that the Sun moved around its axis, that motion was as natural to an object as the state of rest. In other words, for Galileo, celestial bodies, including the Earth, were naturally inclined to move in circles. This view displaced another Aristotelian idea—that all objects gravitated towards their designated natural place-of-belonging.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Time and space|last=Dainton |first=Barry |date=2001|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|isbn=978-0-7735-2302-9|location=Montreal|oclc=47691120}}</ref>