First invented in Greece, the Muslims fully developed the astrolabe around 800. The valuable tool allowed locating and predicting the position of the sun, moon, planets, and stars from a specific site. As a navigation instrument, the astrolabe proved invaluable and it aided Muslim sailors. Further, the astrolabe made accurate mapping and surveying possible. In fact, it helped Muslims map the whole eastern hemisphere and estimate the size of the entire planet for the first time. In the early 12th century, Muslims introduced the astrolabe to Europe thereby advancing that culture as
Luckily, our neighbors to the East, the Arabs, found the documents to be of great interest and kept old Greek astrological records. In the Renisannce period of Christianity the church officials decided to re-examine the ancient records, and actually found some validity in some of the scientific data. Amazingly enough the Christian church decided to implement data from ancient pagan cultures to help create the most widely used calendar to date, the Gregorian calendar.
The first wonderful invention is mathematics which they created base 60 or sexageismal which was used to help form the 360 degree circle and made it so that they can easily trade and make a living. They learned math but only the wealthy students of the priests who were teachers and believed to be the only links to God.
For centuries in the Muslim land the harsh and dry conditions made it hard to collect store and transport water. Most of the progress made in technology and engineering. As said in the quote "Muslim engineers also perfected the waterwheel and built underground water channels some fifty feet underground. The underground channels had manholes (openings from the street) so that they could be cleaned and repaired."(document 7) They created these inventions to help keep water and keep it clean so that they would be able to survive and thrive in where they were staying. As for astronomy most of their work was based off Hellenistic and Indian writing. This could show they were in a golden age because they took the time and effort to figure out what would work and what wouldn’t work and try and fix it. Under one of the early caliphates most Muslim scholars started learning from these writings. As said in this quote "The astrolabe, pictured, allowed people to find their precise latitude by using the position of the stars. The astrolabe was later modified to be used on ships. This innovation allowed Europeans to begin exploring the seas more safely. This lead to the Europeans finding faster trade routes to Asia by sea and Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World."(Document 6) It talks about the creation and perfection of the astrolabe and how it helped people find their exact latitude using the positions of the stars. This didn’t just help throughout the Muslim time but helped other generations of people after. It helped the Europeans find trade routes faster and help Christopher Columbus “discover” the new world. Not only that but it helped people navigate through the seas more
Astrolabe – a complex type of inclinometer in the shape of a sphere or large circle used to chart the positions of stars, planets, moon and Sun, which could then be used to estimate location (use triangulation) and time. Originally invented around 150 B.C., it was greatly developed in the Islamic world. Similar, the marine astrolabe, a large disc shaped instrument used for navigation while at sea.
Much of the new technology that they brought over, however, was borrowed from various people and cultures along their travels. Some of these new technologies include the compass, which they used to figure out which direction they were travelling, and the astrolabe, which aided the sailors in trying to find out how far north or south they were from the equator. Another borrowed technology that greatly benefitted the Europeans on their travels was cartography; this is the science of map making. This was probably one of the most beneficial discoveries to the Europeans because it allowed them to draw out where they had been and where they were
Astronomy was very influential in religion. Star worship and ceremonies have common ground when it comes to astronomy and religion.
Advances were required in cartography, shipbuilding, navigation in open water, and arming a fleet with shipboard cannons. In tackling the problem with maps, the Europeans were most assisted by the Arabs, who were responsible for preserving and adding to the works of Claudius Ptolemy, a Hellenistic scholar whose work fused the astronomical and geographical knowledge of his time. By ca. 1410, sailors had revised Ptolemy’s contributions and developed portolani, practical charts designed for coastal navigation that alone, unfortunately, were still of little use once in the open ocean (Ames, 11). However, this hitch was solved by the concurrent use of the compass, astrolabe, quadrant, cross-staff, and tables of declination.
When Tycho went to Germany he met some amateur astronomers who were very rich. They studied together for a long time. Their problem was they didn't have a very accurate way to observe the sky. This led them to make a large quadrant of a circle with a 19 foot radius! It took them over 20 men to build it! The quadrant was set so they could make observations through an open window. They also had several clocks all being used one after another to make the observations as precise as they possibly could. Then in 1570, after spending years in Germany with fellow astronomers, he returned home to
The astronomy that the Aztecs and the Maya developed was phenomenal. They were both great at predicting eclipses, as well as being the civilizations with the most accurate synodic periods of the Moon, Earth, Venus, and Mars at that time period. Clearly these people knew what they were doing and what they were looking at. Astronomy was such and important piece to their culture that you can see in both of the
Inventions effects greek life by giving an opportunity.For example democracy let the people to take
Greece was a beautiful country of the arts. Ancient Greece’s time was around 2000 to 30 B.C.E. Ancient Greece’s people had to deal with mountainous lands, making it hard to live there. Though these causes were against them, they survived and had beautiful and dramatic plays, arts, and architecture. Greece had many wonderful and terrible leaders, and took over much of the ancient world.. Greece had a very rich religion, counting up thousands of gods. Greece also was known for their arts, from pottery to dramatic plays.
In the 1500’s to 1600’s sailors made a big discovery in the line of navigation of latitude which is the art of directing vessels on the open sea. The inventor John hadley invented the Sextant which is a device that finds the angle between astronomical object and the horizon for the purpose of celestial navigation. The angle when measured can be used to calculate a position line on nautical or aeronautical chart. A common use of the sextant is the sighting of the sun or the solar moon in the northern hemisphere of the world to determine the latitude. it would be hard if the sailors did not have a sextant or if the moon was not out at that night. Or if your math was not right because if you had one little miscalculation your latitude could be
Galileo invented of the sector, that had two rulers equal in length connected ae the middle as an origin. This gave information on the distance of the opponent by spreading apart the two rulers and finding space in between the rulers that that was converted into meters. Furthermore, movement of the opposing side by marking where they were and where they went. Clearly Galileo’s cerebral personality helped the military then and now because people could not find the distance of others. Hans Lippershey, a dutch lenscrafter, invented the telescope, but Galileo improved it greatly.
Most of these items are related to the study of heavenly bodies and the subject of astronomy. The Celestial globe is used to observe the positions of the stars and other celestial bodies. The Two Quadrant are used to read time, it allows the height of the sun and the angle to the horizon to be calculated. A sundial is an instrument used to measures apparent solar time, by measuring the position of the shadow of the sun as it changes through the day. The Torquetum is an object used to determine the relative position of heavenly bodies and tell the time. According to the experts, the sundials reveal that it is 10:30 am on April 11,1533. This tells us that exact date and time of Dinteville?fs visit to London.
The astronomy of East Asia began in China. Solar term was completed in Warring States Period. The knowledge of Chinese astronomy was introduced into East Asia.