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Observations that are incompatible with the Ptolemaic model: the phases of Venus, for instance, which simply could not happen, or the apparent motions of sunspots, which could only be explained in the Ptolemaic or Tychonic systems as resulting from an implausibly complicated precession of the Sun's axis of rotation. [11]
An edition in Latin of the Almagestum in 1515. The Almagest (/ ˈ æ l m ə dʒ ɛ s t / AL-mə-jest) is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Claudius Ptolemy (c. AD 100 – c. 170) in Koine Greek. [1]
Babylonians did celestial observations, mainly of the Sun and Moon as a means of recalibrating and preserving timekeeping for religious ceremonies. [4] Other early civilizations such as the Greeks had thinkers like Thales of Miletus, the first to document and predict a solar eclipse (585 BC), [5] or Heraclides Ponticus.
Johannes Kepler analysed Tycho Brahe's famously accurate observations and afterwards constructed his three laws in 1609 and 1619, based on a heliocentric view where the planets move in elliptical paths. Using these laws, he was the first astronomer to successfully predict a transit of Venus for the year 1631. The change from circular orbits to ...
After using the first chapter to show how primitive conceptions of the celestial spheres satisfied many requirements for a scientific theory, Kuhn highlights the most vexing issues with the model. While the model was quite satisfactory in explaining and predicting the movement of the stars, it struggled mightily to explain the movement of the ...
These agreed reasonably well both with Ptolemaic theory and with observations. For example, Dondi's dial for Mercury uses a number of intermediate wheels, including: a wheel with 146 teeth, two oval wheels with 24 irregularly shaped teeth that meshed together, a wheel with 63 internal (facing inwards) teeth that meshed with a 20 tooth pinion.
Ptolemy's model of astronomy was used as a technical method that could answer questions regarding astrology and predicting planets positions for almost 1,500 years, even though the equant and eccentric were regarded by many later astronomers as violations of pure Aristotelian physics which presumed all motion to be centered on the Earth. It has ...
The first major Muslim work of astronomy was Zij al-Sindhind, produced by the mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in 830. It contained tables for the movements of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The work introduced Ptolemaic concepts into Islamic science, and marked a turning point in ...