On the revolutions of the heavenly bodies11/14/2022 ![]() It was "just the way the epicycles worked out". For example, the Ptolemic model had no particular explanation for why Mercury and Venus are never seen more than a certain angular distance from the Sun, whereas Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be seen at any angular distance. More importantly, however, the Copernican model provided an intuitive physical picture which explained the overall features of planetary motion. (Indeed, some scholars believe that one reason Copernicus discarded the Ptolemic model was a desire to move back to a model which more closely corresponded to the classic Greek principle of uniform circular motion.) It also used only the classic epicycles, i.e., those rotating around a central axis and centered on the main circle, rather than the collections of off-axis and noncentered circles that the Ptolemic model had come to include. In view of this, what was it that (some) people found attractive about the Copernican model? Well, the Copernican model was simpler, in that it used considerably fewer epicycles than did the Ptolemic model. The Copernican model did not work much better than the Ptolemic, in terms of actually predicting where the planets would be.Like the Ptolemic (Earth-centered theory), it assumed the planets to move in perfect circles, in uniform circular motion.We should note two facts about this theory: In any case, in 1543 Mikolaj Kopernik (Latinized name: Copernicus) published De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs), in which he proposed that all the heavenly bodies revolved around the Sun, rather than the Earth. Also, the "work ethic" of the Christian world-view accorded more dignity and social acceptance to nobility who chose to spend their time on intellectual and/or practical matters than was true outside Europe, and this may have had a positive effect. The Judeo-Christian tradition of debating the meaning of written scriptures may have contributed to an atmosphere in which the rediscovered knowledge of the ancient world could be closely scrutinized and debated more vigorously than elsewhere. Why this progress, when it finally came, occurred in Christian Europe (and not in the much wealthier empires of the Middle East, India, or China) is a very good question. Phyx 103-0, The Secret of the Planets The Secret of the PlanetsĪfter the fall of the Roman Empire, no progress was made in theoretical astronomy until the 1500's. ![]()
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