[Link]

htm

The Ptolemaic Model

Claudius Ptolemy lived in Rome around 100 AD. His model of the solar system and heavenly
sphere was a refinement of previous models developed by Greek astronomers. Ptolemy’s major
contribution, however, was that his model could so accurately explain the motions of heavenly
bodies, it became the model for understanding the structure of the solar system. It is beyond the
scope of this course to discuss all the complex social and historical implications of an Earth-
centered versus a Sun-centered model of the solar system. But nearly all the early models,
including Ptolemy’s version of the solar system, assumed that the Earth was the center of not only the solar
system, but the entire universe.

The Ptolemaic model accounted for the apparent motions of the planets in a very direct way, by assuming that
each planet moved on a small sphere or circle, called an epicycle that moved on a larger sphere or circle, called
a deferent. The stars, it was assumed, moved on a celestial sphere around the outside of the planetary spheres.

Ptolemy's fame comes partly from what he figured out, but his influence was largely because he wrote a great
summary of everything known about astronomy. Ptolemy insisted that the job of the astronomer was to explain
the motions of the wanderers using only uniform circular motion - the kind of motion that most gears and
wheels show. To make the planets appear to speed up and slow down, three tricks were used. The epicycles
we've just shown were the first trick. The second trick was to move the observer out of the center of the circle,
putting us into an "eccentric" position. The third trick was called the equant and is illustrated here:

As an indication of exactly how good the Ptolemaic model is, modern planetariums are built using gears and
motors that essentially reproduce the Ptolemaic model for the appearance of the sky as viewed from a
stationary Earth. In the planetarium projector, motors and gears provide uniform motion of the heavenly
bodies. One motor moves the planet projector around in a big circle, which in this case is the deferent, and
another gear or motor takes the place of the epicycle.

While the fact that we base planetarium projectors on the Ptolemaic model of the universe that was developed
almost 2,000 years ago may seem impressive, a better test of the model is how long the model was accepted
by society. In this case, the Ptolemaic model was not seriously challenged for over 1,300 years.
[Link]

The Copernican Model

The Earth-centered model of the universe, refined by Ptolemy, was set firmly in place in the early part of the
first millennium. It was not until 1543 that it met serious competition in the Sun-centered model of Nicolas
Copernicus.

Copernicus was born in 1473 in Poland and studied, among other subjects,
mathematics and astronomy. He is mainly remembered for formally introducing
the idea that the Sun is the center of our solar system. This heliocentric concept
(sun-centered concept) was a radical idea for his time. Nearly all contemporary
astronomers had adopted the Greek Earth-centered model. It was so radical a
concept, in fact, that Copernicus waited until the year of his death to publish his
famous essay titled, “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.”

Copernicus had two main reasons for asserting that the Sun was the center of our solar system.

1. While the Ptolemaic model was very good at predicting the positions of the planets, it wasn't precise, and
over the centuries its predictions got worse and worse.

2. Copernicus didn't like the fact that the Ptolemaic model had big epicycles to explain the retrograde motions
of the planets. He knew that this could be explained instead by having the Earth also moving around the Sun.

The true motion of the planets around the Sun is not uniform circular motion, so Copernicus' model still needed
to have epicycles. He had 1500 years of post-Ptolemy data to work with, and needed quite a lot of epicycles
to make a new set of accurate predictions for the motions of the planets.

The main simplification of the Copernican model was that the retrograde loops of the planets as seen from the
Earth occur naturally as a result of the Earth's motion combined with the motions of the planets.
[Link]

Brahe
King Fredrick II of Denmark built Tycho Brahe an observatory to measure the position of planets with high
accuracy. However, the telescope had not yet been invented, so the observatory was a naked eye observatory
with oversized instruments.

Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601) was born three years after Copernicus’ death

A painting of Brahe’s naked eye observatory. The quarter circle measurement device is drawn to the scale of
the two people in the foreground of the painting.

These instruments allowed Brahe to not only measure the positions of planets with high accuracy, but he also
calculated the measurement error in his instruments. Ascertaining the error in scientific instruments is
expected today, but Brahe pioneered the practice.

Brahe also noted that previous measurements of the planets, as recorded in the texts of the time, were incorrect.
With his new measuring devices, he was able to record the position of the planets with the best possible
accuracy for naked eye observations - ten times more accurately than people had been getting until then.

Even with his high quality observations, Brahe was not able to detect any changes in the positions of the stars
over the year, which should occur if the Earth revolves around the Sun. If he had, this would have constituted
direct proof of the Earth's motion. This parallax effect was not detected by astronomers until the 19th century.
You can see this effect by holding a finger about six inches from your face and alternately closing one eye
and then the other. You should see your finger "jump" relative to background objects.

Brahe proposed a model of the solar system to explain Galileo's observation that Venus has phases without
making it necessary for Earth to be moving. His model had all the planets (except Earth) orbiting around the
Sun, but then the Sun orbited around the Earth. This model satisfies ALL the observations because it
corresponds to reality except that is viewed from the point of view of someone on Earth.
[Link]

Kepler
Johannes Kepler was hired by Brahe as an assistant the year before Brahe died.

Kepler, using very precise data provided by Tycho Brahe, recognized that an even greater simplification could
come from abandoning the circular orbits of planets in favor of ellipses. He didn't reach this conclusion easily,
and was never fully happy with it, apparently. He really tried to make Mars fit circles, but Brahe's data were
too good.

Kepler’s Three Laws

Today, we remember Kepler's insight as 3 laws:

1. The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the Sun at one focus.

This tells us that the motion is not uniform circular motion. Not only is the shape of the orbit no longer a circle,
but also the Sun is not at the center. Remember the "eccentric" of Ptolemy? This is now something that we
expect, and only one position is allowed.

2. The line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal intervals of time.

This tells us that the planet sometimes moves quickly (when it is closer to the Sun) and sometimes more slowly
(when it is farther away).

3. The squares of the sidereal periods are proportional to the cubes of the semi-major axes.

What does this mean? It tells us that the planets are all obeying some common rules. It lets us figure out how
long a new planet will take to go around the Sun if we know the size of its orbit. For example: The Earth takes
1 year to go around, and it is 1 astronomical unit from the Sun. So if there were a planet at 4 astronomical
units, it would take 8 years to go around the Sun once: P squared = a cubed = 4x4x4 = 8x8 so P = 8.

Kepler was looking for patterns in nature, and he found three that really mattered. These three rules helped
Newton discover how gravity works. Kepler also suspected there was some sort of force joining the planets
to the Sun, but it wasn't until Newton worked out the details that we came to have a modern understanding of
our solar system and Earth's place in it.
[Link]

Galileo
Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to use a telescope to study the heavens. Galileo made a number of
observations that finally helped convince people that the Sun-centered solar system model (the heliocentric
model), as proposed by Copernicus, was correct. These arguments can be divided into two kinds: Those that
proved that the Ptolemaic model was incorrect; and those that undermined the broader philosophy of
Aristotelianism that included the Ptolemaic model. We'll first consider some philosophically important
observations and then the ones that proved Venus, at least, goes around the Sun and not around Earth.

Sun and Moon

One of the ideas that made Aristotelianism popular with the church during the middle ages was that the
heavens are perfect. This also meant that they were unchanging, because if they change then either they weren't
perfect before or they won't be perfect after the change.

Galileo discovered spots on the Sun and also saw that the surface of the Moon was rough. People really tried
hard to account for these observations without making the heavens imperfect; one suggestion was that over
the mountains of the Moon there was a layer of clear crystal so the final surface would be smooth and perfect!

Jupiter’s Moons

Galileo saw near Jupiter what he first thought to be stars. When he realized that the stars were actually going
around Jupiter, it negated a major argument of the Ptolemaic model. Not only did this mean that the Earth
could not be the only center of motion, but also it knocked a hole in another argument. The supporters of the
Ptolemaic model argued that if the Earth were moving through space, the Moon would be left behind. Galileo’s
observations showed that the moons of Jupiter were not being left behind as Jupiter moved.

Phases of Venus

One observation definitely disproved the Ptolemaic model, although it didn't prove that Copernicus was right
(as Tycho Brahe pointed out). This was the observation that Venus has phases, much like our Moon does.

To the naked eye, Venus always appears as a bright dot in the sky. With a telescope, however, it is fairly easy
to see the phases of Venus. Just as the Moon has phases, Venus too has phases based on the planet’s position
relative to us and the Sun.

There was no way for the Ptolemaic model (Earth centered solar system) to account for these phases. They
can only occur as Galileo saw them if Venus is circling the Sun, not the Earth.
[Link]

Newton
It was Sir Isaac Newton who was able to show that Kepler's laws of planetary motion are a natural consequence
of simpler and more general descriptions of motions in nature. This brought into one theory both our
observations of how things move on Earth and how the planets move in the heavens. These motions are
described formally as Newton's laws of motion and gravity.

Isaac Newton was born in 1642, the same year that Galileo died.

Newton’s First Law

Every mass, or body, be it at rest or moving, will not alter its present state unless acted upon by an external
force.

This law is also known as the law of inertia. In less formal language: You can't start to move, slow down, stop
moving, or speed up unless there is some force. Galileo was the first to point out this principle. Newton once
said he "stood on the shoulders of giants" and Galileo must have been one of those giants!

Newton’s Second Law

The change in direction or speed of an object, is proportional to the amount of force acting on that body. The
change in motion is also in the direction in which the force is acting.

Less formally: If I push something, it will move in the direction I am pushing. If something is already moving
and I push perpendicular to its motion, it will change the direction it is moving.

The mathematical form of this law is:

where ‘F’ is the force measured in Newtons, ‘m’ is the mass measured in kilograms, and ‘a’ is the acceleration
of the mass measured in meters per squared second (m/s2). F and a are vectors, which for now means just that
we need information about direction as well as how much force or acceleration. By the way, scientists use
"acceleration" to describe both speeding up and slowing down - anything that changes your speed.

Newton’s Third Law

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

That means: If I throw a ball, so I push it in a particular direction, it will push me in the opposite direction.
This is very familiar to anyone who has fired a rifle, as it will push quite hard against your shoulder! This law
is the basis for jet engines and space rockets.