Astronomy 2021A/B Lecture 2: Chapter 2 Notes
9 Feb 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Chapter 2: the science of life in the universe. 2. 1 the ancient debate about life beyond earth. Early greek science: were generally the first to move human understanding of nature from supernatural to rational, first greek science philosopher was named thales. Add(cid:396)essed the (cid:395)uestio(cid:374): (cid:449)hat is the u(cid:374)i(cid:448)e(cid:396)se (cid:373)ade of(cid:863) (cid:449)ithout (cid:396)eso(cid:396)ti(cid:374)g to supe(cid:396)(cid:374)atu(cid:396)al answer. Suggested that the earth was a flat disk on an infinite ocean: three innovations greeks did that helped pave the way for modern science, first: understanding nature without resorting to supernatural causes. Were free to explain however they wanted to because they would always debate about it afterwards: second: developed mathematics in the form of geometry, third: explanation about the world could not be right if disagreed with observed fact. Geocentric model was made with round earth in the center of a great celestial sphere: eratosthenes approximated the distance of the earth pretty accurately.
