Geocentric and Heliocentric Theory
01
03
START
05
tycho brahe
PTOLEMAIC MODEL
Galileo galilei
GEOCENTRIC MODELSECOND CENTURY A.D.
THE DANE TYCHO BRAHE THEORY
02
04
COPERNICAN MODEL
Kepler – laws of planetary motion
HELIOCENTRIC MODEL 1543
PHYSICS TIMELINE
END
06
newton and gravity
Observations of the night sky
Since the earliest times, humans have made observations of the night sky. These observations, particularly of the Earth, Moon, Sun and planets (visible to the naked eye), led to the development of models to explain the movement of these natural satellites as seen in the night sky.
With the development of the telescope, more accurate measurements of night sky objects were possible. This, along with the development of a more ‘scientific’ interpretation of the collected evidence, caused a major shift from an Earth-centred view (geocentric) of the Universe to a Sun-centred one (heliocentric).
NEWTON AND GRAVITY
Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) was born in the same year that Galileo died. His studies of the motion of objects on Earth and of natural satellites in the night sky resulted in three laws of motion and a law of universal gravitation. He linked universal gravitation to Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. This monumental discovery meant that the heliocentric model of the Solar System was finally accepted by the scientific community.
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Kepler – laws of planetary motion
Shortly before his death, Tycho Brahe appointed as his assistant a young German, Johann Kepler (1571–1630). Kepler took over Brahe’s records and edited and extended them with his own observations. Kepler, who was a follower of the Copernican model, realised the orbits of the planets could be elliptical rather than circular.
Using Brahe’s data on the movement of Mars, Kepler developed his laws of planetary motion. These laws added considerable weight to the acceptance of the heliocentric model of the Universe.
EPICYCLES
To be able to explain the irregular motions of the planets, as observed from Earth, Ptolemy used the epicycles: he assumed that every planet rotated with constant speed on a circular path (epicycle), whose centre in turn rotates with constant speed on another circular path centred on Earth. By appropriately adjusting the radii of the two circles and the two rotation speeds, even complex and apparently irregular trajectories were obtained, redeeming two fundamental principles: Earth is at the centre of the universe; the motions of celestial bodies are composed of circular motions, the most perfect in nature.
PTOLEMAIC MODEL
The oldest, and in some ways the most intuitive cosmological model, is the geocentric model. Formulated for the first time by Eudoxus of Cnidus in the fourth century B.C., the geocentric model places the Earth stationary at the centre of the Universe and hypothesises that the stars and planets rotate around it with uniform circular motions. The most elaborate version of this model is by Claudius Ptolemy, the astronomer from Alexandria in Egypt who in the second century A.D. wrote a treatise destined to dominate astronomical studies for almost 1500 years: the Almagest. The Ptolemaic model describes the motions of celestial bodies with a precision that is comparable with that of astronomical measurements made with the naked eye, i.e. without the aid of optical instruments
THE DANE TYCHO BRAHETHEORY
The Dane Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) was born 3 years after the death of Copernicus. He studied mathematics and astronomy in German and Swiss universities and came to the conclusion that the Copernican model defied God’s word as written in the scriptures. He proposed a model with the Sun revolving around the Earth and the planets orbiting the Sun.
Got an idea?
An alternative model to the geocentric one is proposed, in the third century B.C., by Aristarchus of Samos, according to which the Sun is stationary at the centre of the Universe and the planets, Earth included, revolve around it. The success of the Ptolemaic model and the dogma of Earth’s position in the Universe for centuries hindered the development and the affirmation of a heliocentric model. Only in 1543 the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus (1473- 1543) proposed in the De revolutionibus orbium coelestium a heliocentric model, later called Copernican, able to describe the motions of the planets with a precision comparable to that provided by the Ptolemaic system. The Copernican model, however, is superior to the Ptolemaic model because it allows the establishment of the order of the planets with respect to the Sun in a natural way.The Roman Catholic Church, whose teachings held firmly to the Ptolemaic model, rejected his ‘heliocentric’ ideas. Copernicus’s work was banned and remained out of favour until 1822.
THE DANE TYCHO BRAHE THEORY
Tycho Brahe observed the motions of stars and planets and recorded their movements. He had an island observatory equipped with the best available instruments of the time (minus the telescope since it had not been invented). Years of careful observation allowed him to catalogue, with an exceptionally high degree of accuracy, the positions of stars and the movement of the visible planets. In 1572, he observed the appearance of a very bright new star. This was controversial because the belief of the time was that the stars were fixed. Tycho had observed a supernova, now named SN 1572.
END
The journey from the geocentric to the heliocentric model was a long and tortuous one. It was the collection of empirical evidence along with mathematical applications in conjunction with insightful deep-thinking minds that finally replaced the geocentric model with the heliocentric one.
Geocentric vs Heliocentric
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Transcript
Geocentric and Heliocentric Theory
01
03
START
05
tycho brahe
PTOLEMAIC MODEL
Galileo galilei
GEOCENTRIC MODELSECOND CENTURY A.D.
THE DANE TYCHO BRAHE THEORY
02
04
COPERNICAN MODEL
Kepler – laws of planetary motion
HELIOCENTRIC MODEL 1543
PHYSICS TIMELINE
END
06
newton and gravity
Observations of the night sky
Since the earliest times, humans have made observations of the night sky. These observations, particularly of the Earth, Moon, Sun and planets (visible to the naked eye), led to the development of models to explain the movement of these natural satellites as seen in the night sky.
With the development of the telescope, more accurate measurements of night sky objects were possible. This, along with the development of a more ‘scientific’ interpretation of the collected evidence, caused a major shift from an Earth-centred view (geocentric) of the Universe to a Sun-centred one (heliocentric).
NEWTON AND GRAVITY
Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) was born in the same year that Galileo died. His studies of the motion of objects on Earth and of natural satellites in the night sky resulted in three laws of motion and a law of universal gravitation. He linked universal gravitation to Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. This monumental discovery meant that the heliocentric model of the Solar System was finally accepted by the scientific community.
Got an idea?
Use this space to add awesome interactivity. Include text, images, videos, tables, PDFs... even interactive questions! Premium tip: Get information on how your audience interacts with your creation:
Kepler – laws of planetary motion
Shortly before his death, Tycho Brahe appointed as his assistant a young German, Johann Kepler (1571–1630). Kepler took over Brahe’s records and edited and extended them with his own observations. Kepler, who was a follower of the Copernican model, realised the orbits of the planets could be elliptical rather than circular. Using Brahe’s data on the movement of Mars, Kepler developed his laws of planetary motion. These laws added considerable weight to the acceptance of the heliocentric model of the Universe.
EPICYCLES
To be able to explain the irregular motions of the planets, as observed from Earth, Ptolemy used the epicycles: he assumed that every planet rotated with constant speed on a circular path (epicycle), whose centre in turn rotates with constant speed on another circular path centred on Earth. By appropriately adjusting the radii of the two circles and the two rotation speeds, even complex and apparently irregular trajectories were obtained, redeeming two fundamental principles: Earth is at the centre of the universe; the motions of celestial bodies are composed of circular motions, the most perfect in nature.
PTOLEMAIC MODEL
The oldest, and in some ways the most intuitive cosmological model, is the geocentric model. Formulated for the first time by Eudoxus of Cnidus in the fourth century B.C., the geocentric model places the Earth stationary at the centre of the Universe and hypothesises that the stars and planets rotate around it with uniform circular motions. The most elaborate version of this model is by Claudius Ptolemy, the astronomer from Alexandria in Egypt who in the second century A.D. wrote a treatise destined to dominate astronomical studies for almost 1500 years: the Almagest. The Ptolemaic model describes the motions of celestial bodies with a precision that is comparable with that of astronomical measurements made with the naked eye, i.e. without the aid of optical instruments
THE DANE TYCHO BRAHETHEORY
The Dane Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) was born 3 years after the death of Copernicus. He studied mathematics and astronomy in German and Swiss universities and came to the conclusion that the Copernican model defied God’s word as written in the scriptures. He proposed a model with the Sun revolving around the Earth and the planets orbiting the Sun.
Got an idea?
An alternative model to the geocentric one is proposed, in the third century B.C., by Aristarchus of Samos, according to which the Sun is stationary at the centre of the Universe and the planets, Earth included, revolve around it. The success of the Ptolemaic model and the dogma of Earth’s position in the Universe for centuries hindered the development and the affirmation of a heliocentric model. Only in 1543 the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus (1473- 1543) proposed in the De revolutionibus orbium coelestium a heliocentric model, later called Copernican, able to describe the motions of the planets with a precision comparable to that provided by the Ptolemaic system. The Copernican model, however, is superior to the Ptolemaic model because it allows the establishment of the order of the planets with respect to the Sun in a natural way.The Roman Catholic Church, whose teachings held firmly to the Ptolemaic model, rejected his ‘heliocentric’ ideas. Copernicus’s work was banned and remained out of favour until 1822.
THE DANE TYCHO BRAHE THEORY
Tycho Brahe observed the motions of stars and planets and recorded their movements. He had an island observatory equipped with the best available instruments of the time (minus the telescope since it had not been invented). Years of careful observation allowed him to catalogue, with an exceptionally high degree of accuracy, the positions of stars and the movement of the visible planets. In 1572, he observed the appearance of a very bright new star. This was controversial because the belief of the time was that the stars were fixed. Tycho had observed a supernova, now named SN 1572.
END
The journey from the geocentric to the heliocentric model was a long and tortuous one. It was the collection of empirical evidence along with mathematical applications in conjunction with insightful deep-thinking minds that finally replaced the geocentric model with the heliocentric one.