Between Nicolaus Copernicus's heliocentric On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543) and Isaac Newton's Principia (1687), European natural philosophy was transformed by figures including Galileo, Kepler and Descartes. Galileo combined telescopic observation with mathematics, Kepler derived laws of planetary motion, and Newton unified terrestrial and celestial mechanics under universal gravitation. The period established that nature could be described by mathematical laws tested against systematic observation and experiment. New institutions such as the Royal Society helped formalise this method.
It established the empirical, quantitative worldview that later underpinned engineering, accurate surveying and the rational, measured approach to planning and infrastructure.
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