NATS 1745 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Infinite Mass, Deferent And Epicycle
21 Oct 2015
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Earth at centre; moon, sun, planets orbited around earth in perfect circles ideological separation between perfection of heavens ( quintessence") and imperfection of man/ earth. Change occurred on earth; objects moved in order that they get to their natural" place. 4 fundamental elements: earth, air, fire, water: rocks fall in order to return to their natural place (on the earth"s surface) Orbit of moon was boundary of heaven/ earth; perfection/ imperfection. Ancient description of nature (including motion) fundamentally tied to ideology (different from modern science: ptolemy"s description of the universe incorporated epicycles . How did these improve on aristotle"s description of the universe? better predicted positions (motions) of the planets laid cornerstone for modern scientific process: Observe and measure nature (positions of planets) Compare to theoretical model for nature/ universe (model is not nature, but rather is an approximation for nature; model can make predictions about nature like where the planets will appear at a future date)
