ECON 3R03 Lecture : The Origins of Western Science
Document Summary
Detailed measurements of stars were created by muslim scientists. Elaborate models were created based on their observations. Early astronomy was about prediction, observation and measurement. Today"s goal is to discover the fundamental structure of the universe. After the copernican revolution, all major scientific discoveries were made in the west (newton, The copernican model is very similar to islam"s geocentric model. Trigonometry was founded by the greeks but a lot of what we know today about trigonometry is from islamic scientists (sine, cosine, tangent) Brahmagupta was largely responsible for the introduction of hindu numerals to the muslims and that in turn turned out to be arab numerals as we see them today. Al khwarizmi was the man that studied and founded the concept of algebra. Al-haytham discovered the working of the eye and made two observations. 1) vision occurs because rays enter the eye 2) he defined the nature of the rays which was based on prominent.