How Aristarchus Made A Large Jump From Terrestrial Measurements Of Scale

Ancient Greek astronomers made some amazing mathematical and philosophical discovers about our universe. From the Hellenistic Greek observations in approximately 300 B.C.E., to the invention of the first telescope in the seventeenth century, to the launching of today’s space probes, one thing is evident: astrological observations are imperative to creating a calendar.

If we know the moon's position in the sky and its phase, we can estimate the time. In general, knowing any two of the

Hipparchus was a greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician born 190 B.C. in Nicaea and died in 120 B.C. Rhodes, Rhodes, Greece. Hipparchus is accredited as the inventor of trigonometry because of his discovery of the first table of chords and also because he's the only person with valid data of the discovery and usage of trigonometry. In order to calculate the rising and setting of zodiacal signs, Hipparchus brought to light the division of circles into 360 degrees and the calculation of chords by looking at the triangles (spherical triangles or triangles that made up a circle) differently. Hipparchus experimented putting all triangles to be within a circle and with the three points each touching the

His model said that the planets moved not in circles around the sun, but in ellipses and the mathematics was proved using three laws:

(between June 20th and June 22nd) the Greek Astronomer, Eratosthenes had heard of a famous well in a Egyptian City called Syene (now known as Aswan) located around the Nile River. He knew that every year on the solstice, there was no shadow on the bottom of well but instead the rays of sunlight reflected back, and not on the sides of the well as on other days. He came to a conclusion that the sun was directly overhead in Syene at noon every year. He knew that in his hometown Alexindra, the sun was never directly above him even on the solstice. He assembled a pole in Alexindra to study and calculate the shadows position eventually proving that no sun was directly above but faintly south. Knowing that the earth was curved and knowing the distance between the two cities, Syene and Alexandra he calculated the planets circumference by doing simple geometry. “Eratosthenes could measure the angle of the Sun’s rays off the vertical by dividing the length of the leg opposite the angle (the length of the shadow) by the leg adjacent to the angle (the height of the pole). This gave him an angle of 7.12 degrees. He knew that the circumference of Earth constituted a circle of 360 degrees, so 7.12 (or 7.2, to divide 360 evenly by 50) degrees would be about one-fiftieth of the circumference. He also knew the approximate distance between Alexandria and Syene, so he could set up this

Answer: These people used their eyes to look at the stars, moon, and sun. They also used an astrolabe which could pinpoint and predict the moon, stars, planets, and sun’s location. This information helped them know when to plant their crops.

In modern science, all scientific experiments must begin with a scientific question. These questions aim to explain a topic through hypothesis-oriented experimentation. This same scientific method is modeled in the Hellenistic world. For example, Aristarcho calculated the size and distance of the sun and moon. He did this by creating a

Long ago, Artemis and Apollo were twins born by the king of the gods, Zeus, and the Titan goddess, Leto. Artemis became the goddess of the moon, and Apollo became the god of the sun. The sun and moon duo rose to take their rightful place amongst the greatest of Olympians. However, twins are not without their disputes, especially when they're major Olympian gods/goddesses and neither of them like any competition for what they're worth. Therefore, Artemis and Apollo had a huge quarrel over whom the mortals relied on most - the sun or the moon. Apollo countered that the sun was essential for all living things, gave energy to Earth, and provided the mortals

In August 1779 he had begun a survey of all the stars in heaven down to the eighth magnitude, using his 7ft reflecting telescope. The purpose of this survey was to isolate as many double stars as he could discover. He moved his telescope to his house and it was when he was looking in stellar heavens,

Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician and astronomer who was interested in how planets move around the sun. He is also known as the founder of modern astronomy. He discovered the three laws of planetary motion. This paragraph is all about Kepler's second law which is also known as Law of Equal Areas. Kepler determined that the orbits of the planets around the Sun were ellipses. In addition, he noticed that their speeds varied throughout their way. Similarly, he also noted that the planets seemed to move fastest when they were at their closest point to the Sun (called perihelion) and slowest when they were at their farthest point from the Sun (called aphelion). Using some rather brilliant insights of geometry, Kepler discovered that: The

The use of the telescope led him to discover new characteristics of space and the solar system. He discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons and the rings of Saturn. He also discovered that the Milky Way galaxy is comprised of stars. The observation of mountains on the moon was made by Galileo as well. He also made numerous discoveries within these discoveries.

A century after Aristotle, around 250BC, another Greek mathematician and philosopher named Eratosthenes made his claim to fame with a new alleged proof of a spherical Earth. Eratosthenes noted that at noon, during the summer solstice at Syene, the sun cast no shadows and the rays could reach straight to the bottom of his well, yet meanwhile in Alexandria, a vertically standing metal rod cast a significant shadow, by factoring the length of the shadow with his assumed distance to the sun, Eratosthenes recorded a measurement of Earth’s circumference close to what heliocentrist astronomers use today. The fact of the matter is Eratosthenes’ calculations were made assuming the sun to be millions of kilometers away so that its rays would fall perfectly

Eratosthenes wondered why this was happening and set out to find the answer. Eratosthenes, later on, realized that he could measure how far away the overhead of the sun was in Alexandria by measuring the angle of the shadow of a very tall vertical tower in Alexandria which was roughly 7.2 degrees. Eratosthenes, later on, used more geometry to reason that the shadow’s angle would be equivalent to the angle between Alexandria and Syene measured from the Earth’s center. Eratosthenes also knew that if he could determine the distance between Syene and Alexandria all he would have to do is multiply the distance by 50 to get the circumference of the Earth. Eratosthenes knew that all he had to do was multiply 7.2 by 50 because 7.2 is one fiftieth of a full circle and 7.2 multiplied by 50 and so this would give 360 degrees which are the number you get when you go completely around in a circle. Then Eratosthenes set out to find the distance between the two cities. In doing so he figured out the circumference of Earth was 5,000

In 1609, Galileo Galilei, using “spyglass” which allowed one to see things closer than they appeared, made an early version of the telescope. With it, he observed the skies in a way no one had before. He discovered the moon isn’t perfectly globular, it has craters, the Sun has sunspots, Venus orbits the Sun (contrary to widespread belief in his time), and then he observed four “stars” around Jupiter (“Our Solar System”). Within

Through practice Galileo became good to observe the stars and were able to identify craters on the moon.