Should People Change Their Minds Dbq

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When and why should people change their minds? People change their minds when something is said by someone popular or proved to be true by others. In the “Investigations 2” packet from Big History Project, the eight documents portrays this. Their minds change due to rethinking conventional ideas, new technology opening a path to difference, and collective learning. Document 1 talks about Ptolemy’s theory of the geocentric theory. The geocentric theory is the belief that the Universe revolved around the Earth. This is what many people believed at the time because that was all that could be seen with the naked eye: “Ptolemy believed that the Earth was at the center of the Universe and that the Sun, Moon, planets and stars went round the Earth …show more content…

As he was studying, he began to disagree with it. He used science, math, and a yardstick to study the Universe for himself. After measuring the altitude and angles of stars and planets, he was able to claim that the planets revolved around the sun and that only the moon orbited around Earth. According to the document, “Copernicus wrote a short report called the Little Commentary, that explained his heliocentric theory (8).” This report was only shared with a couple of his friends. After 20 years, Copernicus agreed to share his new discovery with the world by publishing a book called On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres about his discoveries. In document 5, Galileo Galilei wrote a letter to a friend, Kepler, for his support for Copernicus’ theory years after he died. In this letter he explains how Galileo believes that the heliocentric theory is the correct theory and that he was too scared to publish his arguments supporting Copernicus. Galileo was scared because only in the eyes of few people and mocked and made fun of by many. Galileo says that he would feel better coming out with his ideas if the idea was more populrized in a positive way. According to document 6, Galileo was an inventor. Even if he didn’t invent the first ever telescope, he invented a very updated version of it. When looking through his invention, he saw that the moon wasn’t smooth and has sunspots which supportted and extened the heliocentric

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