Ptolmaic Theory

Even though is model wasn't completely correct, his discovery was greatly helpful for future discoveries from other scientists. When Copernicus was alive, everyone thought that planet Earth was the center of the universe. One problem he had regarding his model was the movement of the planets. When looking at them closely, he noticed that they would travel backwards after several nights of observation. Others called this retrograde motion.

During the time of Galileo, the church was very strict with physicists who believed in the Copernican model. This is exactly the position that Galileo found himself in. In 1600 Galileo began making his own telescope. He became the first person to point one at the night sky. What staggered him the most by doing this was the sheer volume of stars that were not visible with the naked eye. Galileo used his telescope to make many discoveries; one of these is the discovery of Jupiter’s four moons. He even plotted and tracked there rotations around Jupiter. The main thing however, was that Jupiter even had moons, this was proof that the geocentric model was incorrect and that this discovery was in favour of the Copernican model.

His more relaxed viewpoint on the interpretations of the Bible and scripture allowed him to accept the Copernican theory. He even justified his stance through principals. The first principle was called biblical limitation. “I should judge that the authority of the Bible was designed to persuade men of these articles and propositions which, by science, or by any other means than through the very mouth of the Holy Spirit.” This principle overall explained that the bible could only be understood and interpreted correctly by the Holy Mother Mary. This gave a justification against claims from previous scholars such as St. Aquinas and St. Augustine. These two scholars took ideas for the overall argument from interpretations of the Bible made from either themselves or those before them. Therefore, Galileo believed that the interpretations were false. This allowed for science to not come in conflict with Catholicism as no one truly understood it. Another principle was the priority of physical demonstration. This principle stressed more on the empirical evidence before scriptural evidence. For this principle, Galileo focused primarily on nature and this allowed him to protect the concept of the Copernican theory from the bible. Since he used empirical evidence on nature, it allowed him to determine that the sun was at the center of the universe. Thus, observation, a major part of scientific

The Ptolemaic view of the motions of the stars was earth centric, or geocentric. Ptolemy believed that all the planets revolved around the earth, the earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus on the other hand held the belief that the universe revolved around the sun, or that the universe was heliocentric. Copernicus also only considered there to only be six planets, as he didn’t count the moon like Ptolemy. Kepler held similar beliefs t Copernicus, and believed that the reason why a god-created universe only had six planets instead of seven was based on Plato’s idea of the five Platonic Solids. That just like there are only five forms of matter and five platonic solids, the universe must have been intelligently created in a similar

Copernicus published "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" in 1543 , sparking off the scientific revolution and a new era of astronomical thought. This theory explains that the sun, not the Earth, is the center of the solar system and planets move in a circular motion around it. This had many social, intellectual and religious made of huis idea. For instance, this theory brought into question the strict reading of the Bible and philosophies of the Catholic Church.

Galileo advised heliocentricity, providing the only model that fit all his observations. Copernicus's model, which also changed the orbits of the planets, it made mathematical sense. It also explained all of his new data. His data began to make more sense.

For centuries the world believed in a system formulated by influential astronomer Ptolemy. In the Ptolemaic system the Earth is at the center of all celestial bodies. This theory was widely accepted especially by the Church who held much prominence in Europe. The Catholic Church believed that God formed the earth therefore it should sit at the center of the universe. It wasn't until the 16th century, when a man name Nicolas Copernicus presented a theory which contradicted all that was known in the world of astronomy. Copernicus presented a heliocentric system, in which he placed the sun at the center of the universe, motionless, with the Earth and other planets rotating around it in circular paths modified by epicycles. Thomas S. Kuhn, in his book, The Copernican Revolution, states that “Copernicus, the author of the theory that ultimately deprived the heavens of special power, belonged to the minority group of Renaissance astronomers who did not caste horoscopes” (pg. 94). The Copernican system initially began as a system of minorities, however, as time continued it began to see prominence. Both Johannes Keppler and Galilei Galileo, through their observations and theories began to prove a heliocentric system.

However, if the earth was stationary, they couldn’t account for the apparent retrograde motion of planets in the sky. Ptolmaic created the model of the universe that suggested that the planets circled the earth on what

One of the many people who contributed to the Scientific Revolution was Nicolaus Copernicus. In 1543 he wrote and published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. This was his proposal of his theory of a sun-centered universe, called a heliocentric. He proposed that the sun was the center of the universe, not the earth, as it was widely accepted to be at the time. He further said that the earth, along with all the other planets in the solar system, revolved around the sun. In his predecessor’s theory, Claudius Ptolemy, it showed that the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun and planets revolved around it. To show this, he made a geocentric model depicting that theory, and it was widely accepted. Meanwhile, Copernicus made a heliocentric model for his theory. It, naturally, showed his idea of a sun-centered universe (Document 1). Lots of people, experts, and especially the church, rejected this revolutionary theory. People simply didn’t want to believe, after years and years of accepting that the center of the universe was themselves, that they, in fact, weren’t. In Europe, all scientific knowledge and religious teaching were heavily based on the ideas and arguments of classical thinkers. They thought that if Ptolemy’s geocentric theory was wrong, then their entire scientific and worldly understanding might be in question. However in the late 1500s, another astronomer, Tycho Brahe, found evidence that supported Copernicus. Brahe constructed an astronomical observatory, and spent years carefully studying and

REBEKAH-- The Earth is in an oval around the sun which is called an orbit. The time it takes for the Earth to completely move around the sun, is an Earth year. The Earth also has an axis. What is an axis? An axis is an imaginary line that runs diagonally through the middle of the Earth. The axis is also the thing that helps us know where the equator is.

Galileo Galilei was also a supporter of the Copernican Theory. Galileo believed the earth, and other planets, rotated on its axis around the unmoving sun. He used his new invention of the telescope to prove Copernicus’ theory. With the telescope, Galileo found sunspots on the earth’s moon, which gave proof to him that the heavens were not perfect and changeless but were more like the changeable earth. iv He also discovered Jupiter and the four moons that revolved around it. He only discovered one moon revolving around the earth. Galileo therefore stated if Jupiter were to revolve around the earth, then the earth would have to have at least four moons, and it doesn’t. v The Church objected Galileo’s theory because the Bible said the sun moved through the sky. Being totally rejected by the church, Galileo was forced to take back what he had written and was also prevented from any further teachings of his theory. Galileo was condemned by the Catholic Church for his ideas. The Church succeeded in silencing Galileo but couldn’t stop the advancements in science.

Before we can clearly see if the Ptolemaic planetary model was successful at explaining retrograde motion, we must clearly define what epicycle and retrograde motion are. The Ptolemaic planetary model is based upon the geocentric, or the Earth-centered cosmology. The Ptolemaic model explains that every planet does still orbit the Earth but, does not follow it along a direct orbital pattern. The planets orbit has two full circles. The larger one, known as the deferent, and a smaller one, known as the epicycle.

In the other hand, Nicolaus Copernicus discovered a more simple and plausible model of the universe. Copernicus proposed that in fact the sun was the center of the universe and not the earth. Copernicus thought that since

The way Copernicus found out the truth was having intuition and realizing that what he was taught in school was in fact incorrect. He also had evidence where he found math errors in Ptolemy’s prediction but it seemed that those predictions would be more accurate if the solar system was a heliocentric model so that's how Copernicus found out the truth but the problem was that no one believed him (Text 4). They all made fun of him and said he was wrong and only a few people believed him and of those people was

Nicholas Copernicus gave a theory that he earth and the planets revolve around the sun. No one believed him and thought that his theory was not sensible enough. But Galileo through his experiments proved the Copernican theory to be