PHYS 1201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Apparent Retrograde Motion, Stadial, Aswan
Document Summary
Scientific thinking is based on everyday ideas of observation and trial-and-error experiments. How is science rooted in ancient astronomy - astronomy is the oldest of the sciences. In keeping track of time and seasons. Days of the week were named for the sun, moon, and the visible planets. Greeks were the first people known to make models of nature. They tried to explain the patterns in nature without resorting to myth or the supernatural. Each planet is assumed to move around a small circle that turns upon a larger circle. Earth = 5000 x 360/7 stadia = 250,000 stadia. Greek stadium = km 250,000 stadia = 42,00 km. Copernicus proposed the sun - centered model. He used the model to determine the layout of the system (planetary distances in the au) But the model was no more accurate than the ptomaic model in predicting planetary positions, n/c it still used perfect circles.
