How the Discredited Geocentric Cosmos Was a Critical Component of the Scientific Revolution

The Copernican Revolution, which started the scientific revolution that continues to this day, discredited the earlier model of a geocentric cosmos that had been in place for over 1500 years. Although seen today as a relic of ancient thought and bad science, the geocentric model instead made major contributions to both modern thought and technology. Its system led to the idea of a mechanical universe -- a key idea later adopted by Newtonian physics. In addition its system of epicycles, circles within circles, provided the model for clocks and later gearing for machines -- gearing which is still in use today.