Hipparchus of Nicaea (c. 190 – c. 120 B.C.) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician of the Hellenistic period. Many credit him as the founder of trigonometry. Hipparchus was born in Nicaea, Bithynia (now Iznik, Turkey) and most likely died on the island of Rhodes. He flourished during 162 to 127 B.C. as a working astronomer and is considered by many to be the greatest ancient astronomical observer and, by some, the greatest overall astronomer of antiquity. Utilizing the observations and mathematical techniques accumulated over the centuries by the Babylonians and other Mesopotamians, he was the first person whose quantitative and accurate models for the motion of the Sun and Moon still survive to this day. He developed trigonometry, …show more content…
Ptolemy presented his astronomical models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The Almagest was the authoritative text on astronomy during the Middle Ages. Ptolemy’s model was geocentric and universally accepted until the development of heliocentric systems during the scientific revolution, the time of Copernicus and Kepler (Wikipedia). The Almagest is divided into 13 books. Book 1 contains Ptolemy’s famous table of chords and a brief explanation of its derivation form the geometrical theorem now known as Ptolemy’s theorem. Book 2 concerns the sphericity of the earth. Books 3, 4, and 5 develop the geocentric model of astronomy based on epicycles. Book 4 also contains a solution to the three-point problem of surveying. Book 6 contains the theory of epicycles and a calculation of pi to four decimal places. Books 7 and 8 contain a star catalogue of 1028 fixed stars. The remaining books are devoted to the planets (History of Mathematics 175-177).
The Geographia was a compilation of what was known about the world’s geography in the Roman Empire during the time of Ptolemy. He assigned coordinates to all the places and geographic features he knew in a grid that spanned the globe. He also devised and provided instructions on how to create maps of the whole inhabited world and the Roman provinces. Finally,
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He defines a spherical triangle as the area included by arcs of great circles on the surface of a sphere subject to the constraint that each of the sides or legs of the triangle is an arc less than a semicircle. He then extends Euclid’s propositions about plane triangles to his concept of spherical triangles. The second book of Sphaerica is about astronomy and the third book contains a proof of Menelaus’ theorem for spherical trigonometry. The rest of the third book contains geometric ratios necessary for astronomical work (The Beginnings of
Ptolemy of Alexandria, the Influential Astronomer Ptolemy of Alexandria was the most influential astronomer of the ancient world. The books and theories Ptolemy developed served as a major basis for future astronomers. It was during the Renaissance period that his work became thoroughly studied and revised. Ptolemy collected all ancient knowledge of astronomy and geography including it in his book Almagest around 140 A.D. It follows, he then wrote a four volume astrological study known as the Tretrabiblos.
Geometry, a cornerstone in modern civilization, also had its beginnings in Ancient Greece. Euclid, a mathematician, formed many geometric proofs and theories [Document 5]. He also came to one of the most significant discoveries of math, Pi. This number showed the ratio between the diameter and circumference of a circle.
Hippocrates taught in Athens and worked on squaring the circle and also worked on duplicating the cube. He grew far in these areas and although his work is not lost, it must have contained much of what Euclid later included in Books One and Two of the Elements.
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician ho discovered that planetary motion is elliptical. Early in his life, Kepler wanted to prove that the universe obeyed Platonistic mathematical relationships, such as the planetary orbits were circular and at distances from the sun proportional to the Platonic solids (see paragraph below). However, when his friend the astronomer Tycho Brahe died, he gave Kepler his immense collection of astronomical observations. After years of studying these observations, Kepler realized that his previous thought about planetary motion were wrong, and he came up with his three laws of planetary motion. Unfortunately, he did not have a unifying theory for these laws. This had to until Newton formulated his laws of gravity and motion.
Within Ptolemy’s 13 part series, Mathematike, Syntaxis, and Mathematical Composition, he, “developed a theory of the universe which claims that the earth is stationary and all the planets and stars revolve around it,” (Document C). Ptolemy’s theory was accepted as the standard view of the universe, until Nicolaus Copernicus’ astronomical studies were published in 1543. Copernicus’ theory was the “simplest,” and “most accurate,” (Document C); it encompassed that the Sun is at rest near the center of the Universe, and that the Earth, spinning on its axis once daily, revolves annually around the Sun. The heliocentric, or Sun-centered, system is still used today, and without these discoveries we would not be as advanced as we are
Pythagoras had many teachers but one of the most important of those teachers was Pherekydes who is described by many to be "the teacher of Pythagoras." Between the ages of 18 and 20 Pythagoras studied under Anaximander and he contributes that his astronomy was the natural development of Anaximander's.
Aristarchus lived from about the year 310 B.C. to about 230 B.C. Aristarchus was the first Greek philosopher and mathematician to make sense of the solar system. Others before him thought that the Earth is a sphere and that it moves, but he was the first to understand the heliocentric theory, which states that the sun is in the middle. In 288 or 287 B.C. he followed Theophrastus as the head of the Peripatetic School established by Aristotle.
He used mathematics and observations to develop his understanding of the universe. This was key, because it showed how science could explain things instead of the church. As stated in (Document C) Ptolemy was a Roman astronomer who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, shortly after the time of Jesus. He developed a theory of the universe that was adapted by most scholars during the Middle Ages. Catholicism was the main view point of the way the world worked. Also that many different people had their own theories of the universe and the way the world
When his grandfather died, Nostradamus was sent to Avignon to study. He already showed a great interest in astrology and it became common talk among his fellow students. He upheld the Copernican theory that the world was round and circled around the sun more than 100 years before Galileo was prosecuted for the same belief.
Greek mathematics began during the 6th century B.C.E. However, we do not know much about why people did mathematics during that time. There are no records of mathematicians’ thoughts about their work, their goals, or their methods (Hodgkin, 40). Regardless of the motivation for pursuing mathematical astronomy, we see some impressive mathematical books written by Hippocrates, Plato, Eudoxus, Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Hipparchus, Heron and Ptolemy. I will argue that Ptolemy was the most integral part of the history of Greek astronomy.
1514 Nicolaus Copernicus displays the “first” accurate model of what is referred to as the Hellenistic system. The Hellenistic system theory claimed that the sun was center which contradicted the previous believed geocentric theory, that claimed the earth was center the He completed a manuscript but, in fear of possible anger from the church and other criticisms he did not publish it. His ideas would soon become a great influence for Galileo. 1542
Euclid Of Alexandria may be the best-known mathematician of the world, he is best known for his work on mathematics The Elements. The fact that his work has survived so long, 2000 years in fact, is a tribute to his mathematical genius, however very little of him is known. Three theories abound as to the true nature of this historical figure. Not all historians agree that Euclid was in fact a historical figure, some argue that the school in Alexandria took up the name Euclid to publish their works. But the more accepted theories are that Euclid was in fact a real historical figure who may have been the leader of a team of mathematicians.
Physics began when man first started to study his surroundings. Early applications of physics include the invention of the wheel and of primitive weapons. The people who built Stone Henge had knowledge of physical mechanics in order to move the rocks and place them on top of each other. It was not until during the period of Greek culture that the first systematic treatment of physics started with the use of mechanics. Thales is often said to have been the first scientist, and the first Greek philosopher. He was an astronomer, merchant and mathematician, and after visiting Egypt he is said to have originated the science of deductive geometry. He also discovered theorems of elementary geometry and is said to have correctly predicted an eclipse of the sun. Many of his studies were in astronomy but he also observed static electricity. Phythogoras was a Greek philosopher. He discovered simple numerical ratios relating the musical tones of major consonances, to the length of the strings used in sounding them. The Pythagorean theorem was named after him, although this fundamental statements of deductive geometry was most likely first an idea from Egyptian methods of measurements. With the help of his followers he discovered that the earth was a sphere, but he did not believe it revolved around the sun.
The 17th Century saw Napier, Briggs and others greatly extend the power of mathematics as a calculator science with his discovery of logarithms. Cavalieri made progress towards the calculus with his infinitesimal methods and Descartes added the power of algebraic methods to geometry. Euclid, who lived around 300 BC in Alexandria, first stated his five postulates in his book The Elements that forms the base for all of his later Abu Abd-Allah ibn Musa al’Khwarizmi, was born abo...
Obviously Euclid’s The Elements is by far the most famous mathematical work of classical antiquity, and also has the distinction of being the world’s oldest continuously used mathematical textbook. Very little information is known about the author, beyond knowing the fact he lived in Alexandria around 300 BCE. Subjects of works includes geometry, proportion and number theory.