AST101H1 Chapter Notes -Semi-Major And Semi-Minor Axes, Copernican Revolution, Ellipse

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST101H1
• Professor: Michael Reid

Document Summary

Type of tentative explanation, or hypothesis, is sometimes called an educated guess. Science ultimately provides a means of bringing people to agreement. When a powerful yet simple model makes predictions that survive repeated and varied testing, scientists elevate its status and call it a theory. Basic tenet of astrology is that the apparent positions of the sun, moon, and planets among the stars in our sky influence human events. He discovered simple geometric relationships that allowed him to calculate each planet"s orbital period around the sun and its relative distance from the sun in terms of the earth- He had held fast to the ancient belief that heavenly motion must occur in perfect circles- this incorrect assumption forced him to add numerous complexities to his system to get it to make decent predictions. Proved that the nova was much farther away than the moon. He was convinced that planets must orbit the sun.