Shoulders of Giants

Tim Griffin

Shoulders of Giants

Copyright ©2012 by Tim Griffin
Lyrics posted by permission of the author

Aristotle said the world is a ball
Unrolled a scroll and made a map of it all
He put the planets in the sky, moving round the Earth every day

Copernicus drew a very different one
Pictured all the planets going 'round the Sun
Then Galileo built a telescope and said, "Hey, it sure looks that way."

Chorus
You know that each generation learns a little bit more
Pulling back the curtain, opening up the door
But it's only when we're standing on the shoulders of giants
We can see the things we didn't before

Kepler said it had to run on rational rules
Tried to work it out with geometrical tools
He gave us orbital mechanics but he couldn't figure why it should be

Newton knew the secret when he saw an apple fall
Said there had to be one force to rule them all
He gave us three laws of motion and one more just for gravity

Chorus

Bridge
Each generation finding new ways to question
How the pieces of the universe go
Each new breakthrough's just a part of the progression
And how far it'll go, I don't know

You know we're always redefining and refining the rules
That doesn't mean our predecessors were fools
It's like the pieces of a puzzle that they handed on to you and me

Maybe in another hundred years or two
People then may laugh at all we thought we knew
But they'll be standing on our shoulders when they brag about how far they can see

Chorus

Hershel and Hubble, Einstein and Bohr
Pulling back the curtain, opening up the door
But it's only when we're standing on the shoulders of giants
We can see the things we didn't before...

...and Aristotle said the world is a ball.