Since ancient times, there have been countless ideas about the astral bodies in the sky. Some cultures worshipped them, others paid no mind to them, and many tried to figure out what exactly they were. The most major contributors to these ideas and theories were Aristotle, Kepler, and Galileo. Aristotle was a Grecian philosopher who was born in 384 B.C. and died in 322 B.C. He thought that the Earth was the center of the solar system, and that all the planets and stars in the sky revolved around our planet. His views were widely accepted for about a millennium. This view was later challenged by Nicolaus Copernicus, who proposed that Earth was a planet that revolved around the sun, like all the other planets, in 1543. However, Aristotle’s views prevailed, and many who supported or taught these views, such as Giordano Bruno, received punishments, such as burning at the stake. Johann Kepler defended the ideas of Copernicus and developed his own heliocentric theory In what are now known as Kepler’s Laws. These laws were: The Law of Ellipses, which states that planets move elliptically around the sun; The Law of Equal Areas, which states that if an imaginary line were to be drawn from the center of a sun to an orbiting planet, it would move across equal areas in equal time periods; The Law of Harmonies, which …show more content…
He built upon the works of Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo in regards to planetary motion, created the theory of light and color, and various other things. Most notably, he explained motion and gravity in what are now known as Newton’s Laws of Motion. Newton’s First Law states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Newton’s Second Law can be summarized in the equation F=M*A. Finally, Newton’s Third Law is that every action has an equal and opposite
1) A stationary body will stay stationary unless an external force is applied to it; 2) Force is equal to mass times acceleration, and a change in motion is proportional to the force applied; and 3) For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Bio.org, 2017) He invented the optics which he helped to inspire the build of the
Philosophy can best be described as an abstract, scholarly discourse. According to the Greek, philosophia refers to ‘love of knowledge’. This is an aspect that has involved a great number of clever minds in the world’s history. They have sought to deal with issues surrounding the character of veracity and significantly exploring the endeavors to respond to these issues. This paper seeks to compare and contrast the philosophy of Aristotle with that of Confucius. This is with a clear concentration on the absolute functions of these philosophies and how they take care of the particular responsibility of a person and the broader society and the resultant effects on societies (Barnes, 1995).
In 1543 Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish Canon, published “On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs”. The popular view is that Copernicus discovered that the earth revolves around the sun. The notion is as old as the ancient Greeks however. This work was entrusted by Copernicus to Osiander, a staunch Protestant who though the book would most likely be condemned and, as a result, the book would be condemned. Osiander therefore wrote a preface to the book, in which heliocentrism was presented only as a theory which would account for the movements of the planets more simply than geocentrism did, one that was not meant to be a definitive description of the heavens--something Copernicus did not intend. The preface was unsigned, and everyone took it to be the author’s. That Copernicus believed the helioocentric theory to be a true description of reality went largely unnoticed. In addition to the preface, this was partly because he still made reassuring use of Ptolemy's cycles and epicycles; he also borrowed from Aristotle the notion that the planets must move in circles because that is the only perfect form of motion.
The first record of the movement of the planets was produced by Nicolaus Copernicus. He proposed that the earth was the center of everything, which the term is called geocentric. Kepler challenged the theory that the sun was the center of the earth and proposed that the sun was the center of everything; this term is referred to as heliocentric. Kepler’s heliocentric theory was accepted by most people and is accepted in today’s society. One of Kepler’s friends was a famous person named Galileo. Galileo is known for improving the design and the magnification of the telescope. With improvement of the telescope Galileo could describe the craters of the moon and the moons of Jupiter. Galileo also created the number for acceleration of all free falling objects as 9.8 meters per second. Galileo’s and Kepler’s theories were not approved by all people. Their theories contradicted verses in the bible, so the protestant church was extremely skeptical of both Galileo and Kepler’s
Copernicus was a scientist and philosopher whose theory proposed that the sun was stationary, and the heavens orbit around the sun. Galileo tried to convince the Church not to abolish the Copernican theory but was told that he was not to entertain such thoughts with others.... ... middle of paper ... ...(n.d.).
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer who was important to the progression of the Scientific Revolution. He was a great mathematician and was one of the chief founders of modern astronomy. His education contributed to his discoveries in astronomy, including his finding of three major laws of planetary motion.
Aristotle is regarded by many as one of the most important thinkers of the ancient era. Although many of his theories regarding the physics of the natural world were later disproved by Galileo, Aristotle nevertheless offered the world at that time a relevant and consistent explanation of physics of impressive breadth and explanatory ability. Many of his theories endured for up to 1200 years, and helped to form the basis of the midieval christian perspective of the natural world. Much of his physics, when combined with Ptolemy's mathematical model of planetary motions, was used by midieval thinkers to describe the behavior of the cosmos.
Hipparchus is thought to be the greatest astronomer of ancient times, but he rejected the heliocentric system of Aristarchus, he did not reject it on a religious opinion, but on a scientific one.
To the modern reader, Aristotle's views on astronomy, as presented in Metaphysics, Physics, De Caelo (On the Heavens) and Simplicius' Commentary, will most likely seem very bizarre, as they are based more on a priori philosophical speculation than empirical observation. Although Aristotle acknowledged the importance of "scientific" astronomy - the study of the positions, distances and motions of the stars - he nevertheless treated astronomy in the abstract, linking it to his overall philosophical world picture. As a result, the modern distinction between physics and metaphysics is not present in Aristotle, and in order to fully appreciate him we must try to abandon this pre-conception. Aristotle argued that the universe is spherical and finite. Spherical, because that is the most perfect shape; finite, because it has a center, viz. the center of the earth, and a body with a center cannot be infinite. He believed that the earth, too, is a sphere. It is relatively small compared to the stars, and in contrast to the celestial bodies, always at rest. For one of his proofs of this latter point, he referred to an empirically testable fact: if the earth were in motion, an observer on it would see the fixed stars as moving, just as he now observes the planets as moving, that is from a stationary earth. However, since this is not the case, the earth must be at rest. To prove that the earth is a sphere, he produced the argument that all earthly substances move towards the center, and thus would eventually have to form a sphere.
Sir Isaac Newton is the man well known for his discoveries around the term, Motion. He came up with three basic ideas, called Newton’s three laws of motion.
He conducted experiments on sunlight and prisms. He discovered that sunlight was made up of different colors. This lead to his work on reflecting telescopes. At the same time he was working out his ideas of planetary motion. He returned to Cambridge in 1667 and became the a fellow, earned his MA and the following year became the chair of the math department. he then wrote a book on optics. Newton worked cooperatively wiht other scientists such as Robert Hookeand Edmund Halley on planetary motion. But he was later bitter and resentfull not wanting to give other any credit for their contributions to his work. Newton went on to serve in government positions such as a member of Parliament and later as Warden of the Mint. His only words spoken as a member of parliament were "shut the window." He had a mental breakdown of sorts resulting in thoughts of persecutiojn mania later in life.
Much to the dismay of the Church, two astronomers Galileo and Kepler had the audacity to challenge the authorities by suggesting that the sun-not the earth-was at the center of the universe. The church had a stronghold on the way the spiritual and physical world worked, so these discoveries only added to the Church’s resistance to their aims. Their discoveries came only after Kepler and Galileo began to question ancient theories about how the world functioned. These ancient truths were widely held but were inconsistent with the new observations that they had made. Kepler had discovered the laws of planetary motion which suggested that the planet would move in elliptical orbits, while Galileo followed with his discovery of the principle of inertia. Galileo concluded his finding b...
Although Aristotle grew up under the ideas of Plato, through time he began to develop his own theories and views about philosophical thoughts (Aristotle Biography, 2015). Aristotle believed that in order to understand the natural world to the fullest, one must use each of the five senses, all of which we use to this day. Aristotle also had his own views of the world, especially the astronomy of it. He believed the earth was at the center of the universe and the remaining planets, only 5 known at the time, were circling around it (Worldview of Ancient Greece - Socrates, Plato & Aristotle, n.d.). We know now that his views on this matter are not taught and the planets revolve around the
Sir Isaac Newton contributed his whole life to the field of science . He invented calculus and provided a clear understanding of optics. But his most significant work had to do with forces, and specifically with the development of a universal law of gravity
.... Throughout the book Ptolemy compared his own observations with those of Hipparchus, regarding the motion of the sun; Ptolemy found the lengths of the seasons and introduced a simple model for the sun which was a circular motion of uniform angular velocity however the earth would be displaced from the center referred to as eccentricity. He also used his own observations and those of Hipparchus to show that the fixed stars always maintain the same position relative to each other. Concerning his planetary theory, according to his model the path of a planet consisted of a circular motion on an epicycle while the center of the epicycle moving around a circle whose was offset from the earth. It is important to mention that the planetary theory introduces by Ptolemy was considered to be a noticeable achievement, since it predicted the motion of the planets fairly well.