Trigonometry: The Hipparchus Catalogue Essay

Galileo might be the most famous person in the development of astronomy. He is famous, not only because of the amazing work he did to advance Copernican theory of heliocentrism, but also because of the controversy that surrounded him. Using new methods and instruments, he provided compelling new evidence to support Copernican theory. He also contributed to the development of theories of physics that could account for the movements of bodies in new terms. His observations of the movements of objects in the heavens required different explanations than the old ideas about the heavens. It required him, and others, to begin to understand the reasons to explain these new observations. His efforts to publicize his findings was met by

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.

During the first millennium B.C. scientists realized that astronomy had to become more scientific. Middle Eastern and Chinese cultures started studying the Sun, stars and the planets more closely in an attempt to learn more about our position in the universe.. Star positions also became important tools in understanding directions, and helping with navigation. One philosopher stated in 434 B.C. that the Sun was a ball of fire 60 kilometres in diameter, hovering 6500 kilometres above Earth’s surface. Around 130 B.C., Ptolemy wrote Almagest, which was a huge collection of astronomical data which included mathematical models, information about eclipses, and planetary and stellar positions and movements. It remained a major go to book for astronomy for hundreds of years, and was not seriously challenged until Copernicus disputed the geocentric model of the solar system in the 1500’s

Among these people were Copernicus who believed the sun was at the center of the world and the earth, stars and planets revolved around it. Danish astronomer Brahe helped contribute to this idea by contributing a large mass of data about the universe that he was able to discover. His student Kepler kept his ideas going, as he formulated many laws of planetary motion. He said the orbits around the sun were elliptical, planets don’t move in a uniform speed and the time a planet completes its orbit is related to its distance from the sun. Meanwhile, Florentine Galileo decided to use experiments to find out what happened and not what should happen, and discovered that a uniform force makes a uniform acceleration as well as inertia laws, that an object will be in motion forever unless stopped by another force.

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

Galileo(1564-1642) Made the telescope better and he used the telescope to observe planets, and he proves kepler’s theory, saw the imperfection of planets, and saw a storm on a planet also saw craters.

Did you know that Pythagorean Theorem was actually created well before our generation’s time period? Yes, it seems that is pretty basic knowledge, but did you know it was actually created in B.C. and instead of A.D.? The brilliant mind to thank for such an achievement is the man who goes by the name Pythagoras. However the Pythagorean Theorem isn’t his only accomplishment, he was so advanced for his time, that he had many achievements. But to the best way to examine these accomplishments is to start at the beginning.

While researching “pre-industrial astronomical accomplishments,” it seemed that a good majority of the accomplishments being highlighted were those of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. Feeling that these topics may be over-researched, I decided to turn my attention towards the accomplishments of those in a different area of the world. After switching my focus to the pre-industrial astronomical feats of ancient Greek scientists, I have found that in many cases, these scientists contributed more than one idea, finding, or apparatus to the field of astronomy. For this research, I decided to hone in on the contributions made by Greek scientist Hipparchus. Throughout his magnificent life, and all before the implementation of modern technology,

In other words Claudius Ptolemy was an astronomer who was born during the year 85 AD . He spent most of his life studying how the Earth, Planets, and Sun moved. He was one of the very first astronomers so, not very much was known. A lot of people doubted him because in his time religion was very important and they thought that they only thing you couldn't see with the naked eye was Heaven and hell. His first time he published his observation was on March 26th 127. He spent almost 20 years getting his theory to make sense. He knew people wouldn't believe him so he broke down his discovery into thirteen books and each book was a part of his discovery. After he published his first one he was able to do a couple small ones, but sadly, the last of his discoveries was made on

In this time period the Greeks emperors believed and paid lot of money to have astronomers make new discoveries of the planets and stars. Astronomy was a big mixture of knowing how the planets worked and mathematics. As more and more theories began coming to picture, each of them were built off of eachother. These theories also allowed inventions to come to life, some that we even use still today such as the telescope. Even though these theories and inventions are old, they have influenced today's technologies and space science. Just how Newton's theory of gravity was influenced on other great greek astronomers and their studies.

During this time period many things were invented like the astrolabe, sextant, and caravel. The caravel was invented by the portuguese, was much less heavy so it could travel up rivers, was quicker for the longer journeys, and had a triangular sail instead of a rectangular sail. The astrolabe was an instrument that, in its earlier time, was used for astronomy and astrology but ended up mainly being used as a tool of navigation and to solve problems involving trigonometry, problems relating to time, and the position of the sun and stars. The astrolabe was invented by Hipparchus who lived from 190 BC - 120 BC and also made major contributions to trigonometry. Trigonometry is a type of math that involves the relations between a triangle’s angles and sides.

One of the most important geographers in history was Eratosthenes. Eratosthenes was a third century BC astronomer, geography, mathematician and poet. He was born in 276 BC in a place we now call “Libya”. He was the first man to ever calculate the size of the Earth,

A scientist named Nicolaus Copernicus took the ideas of Ptolemy, another astronomer from the Middle Ages that believed that the planets revolved around the Earth, and discovered an idea that the planets, along with the Earth, revolve around the Sun, or heliocentric ideas. Furthermore, new ideas were spread about anatomy. One belief that most anatomy studiers had was that the zodiac commanded each part of the body. For instance, it was believed that Aries the Ram controlled the head. Later on, a scientist named Andreas Vesalius dissected the human body and discovered what the true human body was like. In conclusion, science took a huge leap forward during the

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician who lived between 1671-1630. Kepler was a Copernican and initially believed that planets should follow perfectly circular orbits (“Johan Kepler” 1). During this time period, Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the solar system was accepted. Ptolemy’s theory stated that Earth is at the center of the universe and stationary; closest to Earth is the Moon, and beyond it, expanding towards the outside, are Mercury, Venus, and the Sun in a straight line, followed by Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the “fixed stars”. The Ptolemaic system explained the numerous observed motions of the planets as having small spherical orbits called epicycles (“Astronomy” 2). Kepler is best known for introducing three

Eratosthenes was born in 276 B.C. in a Greek colony in Cyrene, a country in North Africa better known in the present day as Libya. He raised by modest parents, his mother’s name is not known, and his father’s name could be one of two that have been discovered, Aglaos or Ambrosios. Even though they were modest parents, they were somehow able to have enough money for an education for their son. They would have had to own land that was worth at least 20 minas (type of Athenian currency), and his parents would have been free citizens. He was a typical, curious baby and as he grew older, he asked hundreds of questions that no one could answer. He was extremely interested in the sky, because it was something that he could not reach up and touch. He wondered how what the distance between the sun and earth was and what the sun was made of, why there was wind, and why the stars moved. Like most young Greek boys, when Eratosthenes was about six, he began to go to school in the local gymnasium, where he learned reading, writing, mathematics, poetry, music and physical education. He was very strong in math but geography was by far his favourite subject. In his early years, he was given the nickname Beta, the second letter of the Greek alphabet, because he never came in first place (taken by Archimedes). Later in life, he got the nickname Pentathlos. This word meant an athlete that participated in 5 sporting events or to describe someone who was good at a variety of different