NATS 1745 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Circular Motion, Armillary Sphere, Retrograde And Prograde Motion
22 Jul 2017
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Astronomical phenomena viewed as actions, moods, and warnings of gods. Myth-based cosmology: astronomy used for terrestrial purposes. Navigation, agriculture: study astronomy for the sake of gaining knowledge. No longer invoking the gods to explain things. Constructed worldview based on sense perceptions(cid:1442) not subject to the whims of the gods; the info you take in around you is through your senses. Fundamental change in thinking about the cosmos. Possibly due to stability to long-term agricultural society. Able to devote time to scholarly activities. Needed a very accurate calendar as their empire grew (as they conquered lands and gained more people) when to pay people, etc. Big change: construction of a model of the cosmos. Movement away from straight observations of nature and predictions based on patterns (eg mayan scribes) Movement towards artificial construct of model which represents nature, and could predict future motions. Called the geocentric model or the earth-centered model".
