Aristarchus
86% of the total mass of the
Year 310 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar.
At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of
Rullianus and Censorinus... – ca. 230 BC
230 BC-Anatolia:* The city of Pergamum is attacked by the
Galatians because the leader of Pergamum, Attalus I Soter,
has refused to pay them the customary tribute. Attalus
crushes his enemy in a battle outside the walls of his city
and to mark the success he takes the title of king and the
name...) was a Greek
GreeksThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation
and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring
regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek
communities established around the world.... astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies
such as planets, stars, and galaxies.Historically, astronomy
was more concerned with the classification and description
of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to
explain these phenomena and the differences between
them using... and mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study or
research, or both, is the field of mathematics.
Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems
related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more
general ideas which encompass these concepts.Some
notable mathematicians..., born on the island of Samos
Samos Island
Samos is a Greek island in the North Aegean sea, south of
Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the
coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the -wide
Mycale Strait...., in Greece
Greece
Greece , also known as Hellas and officially the Hellenic
Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on
the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula..... He is the first
known person to have presented a heliocentric model
Heliocentrism
Heliocentrism, or heliocentricism, is the astronomical
model in which the Earth and planets revolve around a
stationary Sun at the center of the universe. The word
comes from the Greek . Historically, heliocentrism was
opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth at the
center... of the solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and those celestial
objects bound to it by gravity, all of which formed from the
collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6
billion years ago..., placing the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It has
a diameter of about , about 109 times that of Earth, and its
mass accounts for about 99.
Solar System...., not the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and
fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is
also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial
planets..., at the center of the known universe. He was
influenced by the Pythagorean
Pythagoreanism
Pythagoreanism is a term used for the esoteric and
metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers,
the Pythagoreans, who were considerably influenced by
mathematics. Pythagoreanism greatly influenced
Platonism...
 Philolaus
Philolaus
Philolaus was a Greek Pythagorean and Presocratic
philosopher. He argued that all matter is composed of
limited and unlimited things, and that the universe is
determined by numbers. He is credited with originating the
theory that the earth was not the center of the
universe... of Croton, but, in contrast to Philolaus, he had
both identified the central fire with the Sun, as well as put
other planets in correct order from the Sun. His
astronomical ideas were often rejected in favor of the
geocentric
 theories of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and
teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many
subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater,
music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, philosophy, fundamental existential and normative
and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle
is... and Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a
Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a
mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a
poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology... until
they were successfully revived nearly 1800 years later by
Copernicus and extensively developed and built upon by
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances
and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and
revolution. He is best known for his eponymous laws of
planetary motion, codified by later astronomers based on
his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome Though the original text has been lost, a reference in
of...
 and Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton FRS was an English physicist,
mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher,
alchemist, and theologian who is considered by many
scholars and members of the general public to be one of the
most influential people in human history...The crater
Aristarchus
on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and is the fifth
largest satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest natural
satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its
planet, a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass,
and is the second densest satellite after Io...
 and the Greek Aristarchos Telescope are named in his
honor.
Heliocentrism
The only work usually attributed to Aristarchus that has
survived to the present time, On the Sizes and Distances of
the Sun and Moon
, is based on a geocentric world view
World view
A comprehensive world view is the fundamental cognitive
orientation of an individual or society encompassing natural
postulates or themes, values, emotions, and ethics. The
term is a loan translation or calque of German
Weltanschauung , composed of...
. It is peculiar and possibly informative that this work
reckons the sun's diameter as 2 degrees, rather than the
correct value, 1/2 degree. The latter diameter is known
from Archimedes
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician,
physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few
details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the
an... to have been Aristarchus's actual value.
Archimedes
 phenomenon, stellar parallax. The rejection of the
heliocentric view was common, as the following passage , but the insufficiently accurate 87° datum, Aristarchus
from Plutarch concluded that the Sun was between 18 to 20 times farther
Plutarch away than the Moon. (The true value of this angle is close
Plutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman to 89° 50', and the Sun's distance is actually about 400
' book The Sand Reckoner citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a times the Moon's.) The implicit false solar parallax of
The Sand Reckoner Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist slightly under 3° was used by astronomers up to and
The Sand Reckoner is a work by Archimedes in which he set known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia... including Tycho Brahe
out to determine an upper bound for the number of grains Tycho Brahe
of sand that fit into the universe. In order to do this, he  suggests (On the Apparent Face in the Orb of the Moon): Tycho Brahe , born Tyge Ottesen Brahe , was a Danish
had to estimate the size of the universe according to the The only other astronomer from antiquity, who is known by nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive
then-current model, and invent a way to talk about name and who is known to have supported Aristarchus' astronomical and planetary observations...
extremely... heliocentric model was Seleucus of Seleucia
Seleucus of Seleucia , ca. AD 1600. Aristarchus pointed out that the Moon and
(Archimedis Syracusani Arenarius & Dimensio Circuli) Seleucus of Seleucia was a hellenized Babylonian Sun have nearly equal apparent angular sizes
describes another work by Aristarchus in which he advanced astronomer and philosopher who stood in the tradition of Angle
an alternative hypothesis Hellenistic astronomy... In geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays
Hypothesis sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle.
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observable , a Mesopotamian astronomer who lived a century after The magnitude of the angle is the "amount of rotation" that
phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι Aristarchus. separates the two rays, and can be measured by considering
– hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose." For a the length of circular arc swept out when one ray is rotated
hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the about...
scientific method requires that one can test it... Distance to the Sun (Lunar Dichotomy)
Aristarchus claimed that at half moon (first or last quarter
moon  and therefore their diameters must be in proportion to
 of the heliocentric model. Archimedes wrote: their distances from Earth. He thus concluded that the
Aristarchus thus believed the stars to be very far away, and diameter of the Sun was between 18 to 20 times larger than
saw this as the reason why there was no visible parallax Lunar phase the diameter of the Moon; which, although wrong, follows
Parallax A lunar phase or phase of the moon refers to the logically from his data. It also leads to the conclusion that
Parallax is an apparent displacement or difference in the appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen the Sun's diameter is almost seven times greater than the
apparent position of an object viewed along two different by an observer, usually on Earth. The lunar phases vary Earth's; the volume of Aristarchus's Sun would be almost 300
lines of sight, and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the times greater than the Earth. This difference in sizes may
inclination between those two lines... changing relative positions of the Earth, Moon and Sun... have inspired the heliocentric model.

, that is, an observed movement of the stars relative to
each other as the Earth moved around the Sun. The stars
are in fact much farther away than the distance that was
generally assumed in ancient times, which is why stellar
parallax is only detectable with telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of
remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic
radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes
were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the
17th century...
s. The geocentric model
Geocentric model
In astronomy, the geocentric model , is the theory, now
superseded, that the Earth is the center of the universe and Using correct geometry
other objects go around it. Belief in this system was
common in ancient Greece...
, consistent with planetary parallax, was assumed to be an
explanation for the unobservability of the parallel
), the angle between sun and moon was 87°. Possibly he
proposed 87° as a lower bound since gauging the lunar
terminator
Terminator (solar)
The terminator or twilight zone is a fictive line that
delimits the illuminated day side and the dark night side of
a planetary body . On Earth, the terminator is a circular
line with a diameter that is approximately that of the
Earth...
's deviation from linearity to 1° accuracy is beyond the
unaided human ocular limit (that limit being about 3°
accuracy). Aristarchus is known to have also studied light
and vision.
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with
spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of
pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of
numbers....
The Great Year and an Estimate of the Length of the
Month
Mentioned by Archimedes and by modern scientists for
being the first to propose a heliocentric "universe",
Aristarchus also proposed an ancient Greek time period,
his "Great Year
Great year
In the history of astronomy, a Great Year often refers to
one complete precession of the equinox, but may also refer
to any real or imagined cycle with astronomical or
astrological significance. The most common Great Year is
the time required for one complete cycle of the precession
of the...
" of 4868 solar years, equalling exactly 270 saroi,
each of 18 Callippic
Callippic cycle
In astronomy and calendar studies, the Callippic cycle is a Eratosthenes (276 BC - 194 BC) was a Greek mathematician,
particular approximate common multiple of the year and  has preserved two ancient manuscripts with estimates of geographer and astronomer. His contemporaries nicknamed
the synodic month, that was proposed by Callippus in 330 the length of the year. him "beta" (Greek for "number two") because he supposedly
BC... The only ancient scientist listed for two different values is proved himself to be the second in the ancient
Aristarchus. It is now widely suspected that these are Mediterranean region in many fields. He is noted for
 years plus 10 and 2/3 degrees. (Syntaxis, book 4 chapter among the earliest surviving examples of continued fraction devising a system of latitude and longitude, and for being
2.)  expressions. The most obvious interpretations are precisely the first known to have calculated the circumference of the
Its empirical foundation was the 4267 month eclipse cycle, computable from the manuscript numbers. Earth. He also made what he thought was a map of the
cited by Ptolemy as source of the "Babylonian" month, Earth.
which was good to a fraction of a second (1 part in several The results are years of 365 + 1/152 days, and 365 -
million). It is found on cuneiform tablets from shortly 15/4868 days, representing the sidereal year and the civil, Eratosthenes was born in Cyrene (now in Libya), but worked
before 200 B. C., though Ptolemy did not attribute its origin supposedly tropical year. and died in Ptolemaic Alexandria. He is noted for devising a
to Babylon. system of latitude and longitude and computing the size of
(Due to near integral returns in lunar and solar anomaly, Both denominators are relatable to Aristarchus, whose the Earth.
eclipses 4267 months apart exceptionally never deviated by summer solstice
more than an hour from a mean of 126007 days plus 1 hour,  was 152 years after Meton's and whose Great Year was 4868
the value given by Ptolemy at op. cit. Thus, estimation of years. Eratosthenes studied at Alexandria and for some years in
the length of the month was ensured to have relative The difference between the sidereal Athens. In 236 BC he was appointed by Ptolemy III Euergetes
accuracy of 1 part in millions.) Sidereal year I as librarian of the Alexandrian library. He made several
Embedded in the Great Year was a length of the month A sidereal year is the time taken by the Earth to orbit the important contributions to mathematics and science, and
agreeing with the Babylonian value Sun once with respect to the fixed stars. Hence it is also the was a good friend to Archimedes. Around 255 BC he
to 1 part in tens of millions, decades before Babylon is time taken for the Sun to return to the same position with invented the armillary sphere, which was widely used until
known to have used it. respect to the fixed stars after apparently travelling once the invention of the orrery in the 18th century.
There are indications that Babylon's month was exactly that around the ecliptic. It was equal to at noon 1 January...
of Aristarchus, which if true renders it effectively certain He is credited by Cleomedes in On the Circular Motions of
that one party obtained it from the other or from a common  and tropical year the Celestial Bodies with having calculated the Earth's
source. Tropical year circumference ca. 240 BC, using trigonometry and
A tropical year , for general purposes, is the length of time knowledge of the angle of elevation of the Sun at noon in
Aristarchus's lunar conception represents an advance of that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the Alexandria and Syene (now Aswan, Egypt).
science in several respects. cycle of seasons, as seen from Earth; for example, the time
Previous estimates of the length of the month were in error from vernal equinox to vernal equinox, or from summer Eratosthenes knew that on the summer solstice at local
by 114 seconds (Meton, 432 B. C.) and 22 seconds (Callippus solstice to summer solstice... noon on the Tropic of Cancer, the Sun would appear at the
Callippus zenith, directly overhead - though Syene was in fact slightly
Callippus or Calippus was a Greek astronomer and s is identical to precession. The former value is accurate north of the tropic.
mathematician.Callippus was born at Cyzicus, and studied within a few seconds. The latter is erroneous by several
under Eudoxus of Cnidus at the Academy of Plato. He also minutes.
worked with Aristotle at the Lyceum, which means that he He also knew, from measurement, that in his hometown of
was active in Athens prior to Aristotle's death in 322... Both are close to the values later used by Hipparchus Alexandria, the angle of elevation of the Sun would be 7°
 and Ptolemy south of the zenith at the same time. Assuming that
, 330 B. C.). The attribution of a mean motion to such a Ptolemy Alexandria was due north of Syene - Alexandria is in fact on
motion as the moon's was possibly new. Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a a more westerly longitude - he concluded that the distance
Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a from Alexandria to Syene must be 7/360 of the total
mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a circumference of the Earth.
Precession
poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology...
The distance between the cities was known from caravan
, and the precession indicated is almost precisely 1 degree travellings to be about 5,000 stadia.There were some errors
The Vatican errors in this calculation. Syene is not exactly on the Tropic
Vatican Library per century, a much-too-low value. Unfortunately, 1 degree
per century precession was used by all later astronomers of Cancer, and is not directly south of Alexandria; nor is the
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently Sun at infinite distance. (Eratosthenes knew the last, but
located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in until the Arabs. The correct value in Aristarchus's time was
we are not told he corrected for it.)
the world and contains one of the most significant about 1.38 degrees per century.
collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475,
though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from... More seriously, angles in antiquity could be measured only
Eratosthenes
to degrees or quarter-degrees, and measurement of
overland distances was worse. He established a final value
of 700 stadia per degree, which implies a circumference of
252,000 stadia.
The exact size of the stadion he used is no longer known
(the common Attic stadion was about 185 m), but it is
generally believed that Eratosthenes' value corresponds to
between 39,690 km and 46,620 km. The circumference of
the Earth around the poles is now measured at around
40,008 km.
Eratosthenes' method was used by Posidonius about 150
years later.
About 200 BC Eratosthenes is thought to have coined or to
have adopted the word geography, the descriptive study of
the Earth.
Eratosthenes' other contributions include:
 The Sieve of Eratosthenes as a way of finding
prime numbers.
 The measurement of the Sun-Earth distance, now
called the astronomical unit (804,000,000 stadia). It is certain, however, that in all his work Hipparchus
 The measurement of the distance to the Moon
(780,000 stadia).
 The measurement of the inclination of the ecliptic but also the heliocentric views of the universe that seem to made in Babylonia.
with an angle error 7'.
 He compiled a star catalogue containing 675 stars, BC), by Aristarchus of Samos (flourished c. 270 BC) and that He discovered that the celestial longitudes were different
which was not preserved.
 A map of the Nile's route as far as Khartoum.
 A map of the entire known world, from the British necessary to recall that strong arguments had been
Isles to Ceylon, and from the Caspian Sea to
Ethiopia.
Only Hipparchus, Strabo, and Ptolemy were able to following up the lead given by Aristarchus. Moreover, the
make more accurate maps in the classical and
post-classical world.
In 195 BC he became blind and a year later he starved
himself to death.
The fragmentary collection of Hellenistic sky-myths called
Catasterismi (Katasterismoi) was given an attribution to
Eratosthenes, a name to conjure with, to add to its
credibility.
Hipparchus of Rhodes:
Hipparchus, (b. Nicaea, Bithynia--d. after 127 BC, Rhodes?),
Greek astronomer and mathematician who discovered the
precession of the equinoxes, calculated the length of the
year to within 6 1/2 minutes, compiled the first known star not until the 15th century that regular observations over
catalog, and made an early formulation of trigonometry. very long periods showed the geocentric hypothesis to be
too complex to be acceptable and Copernicus proposed that
Hipparchus carried out his observations in Bithynia, at the Sun is the centre of the universe.
Rhodes, where he spent much time, and also, it seems, at
Alexandria. The year 127 BC is usually cited as the last date Few details are known of the instruments that Hipparchus
known for his actual work, and a French astronomer, Jean- used. It seems likely that he observed with the usual
Baptiste-Joseph Delambre (1749-1822), clearly devices current in his day, although Ptolemy credits him
demonstrated that some observations of Hipparchus on the with the invention of an improved type of theodolite with
star Eta Canis Majoris could well have been carried out in which to measure angles.
that year.
Hipparchus is best known for his discovery of the
Most of contemporary knowledge of Hipparchus is contained precessional movement of the equinoxes; i.e., the
in the writings of Strabo of Amaseia (flourished c. AD 21) alterations of the measured positions of the stars resulting
and in the great astronomical compendium Almagest by from the movement of the points of intersection of the
Ptolemy (flourished AD 127-151). Ptolemy often quotes ecliptic (the plane of the Earth's orbit) and of the celestial
Hipparchus, and it is obvious that he thought highly of him; equator (the great circle formed in the sky by the
indeed, as a result of the slow progress of early science, he projection outward of the Earth's equator). It appears that
speaks of him with the respect due a distinguished he wrote a work bearing "precession of the equinoxes" in
contemporary, although almost three centuries separated the title. The term is still in current use, although the
the work of the two men. It is difficult always to determine phenomenon is more usually referred to merely as
to which of them credit is due. "precession." This notable discovery was the result of
painstaking observations worked upon by an acute mind.
Hipparchus observed the positions of the stars and then
showed a clear mind and a dislike for unnecessarily complex compared his results with those of Timocharis of Alexandria
hypotheses. He rejected not only all astrological teaching about 150 years earlier and with even earlier observations
have been proposed, according to Archimedes (c. 287-212
were resuscitated by Seleucus the Babylonian, a and that this difference was of a magnitude exceeding that
contemporary of Hipparchus. In this connection, it is attributable to errors of observation. He therefore proposed
precession to account for the size of the difference and he
advanced against the idea of the motion of the Earth, and gave a value of 45" or 46" (seconds of arc) for the annual
the general climate of opinion had never been favourable to changes. This is very close to the figure of 50.26" accepted
today and is a value much superior to the 36" that Ptolemy
system of movable eccentrics, and that of epicycles and obtained.
deferents, accounted well for most of the irregularities
observed in the motions of the Sun, the Moon, and the The discovery of precession enabled Hipparchus to obtain
planets. These two systems were based on the erroneous more nearly correct values for the tropical year (the period
belief that all celestial movement is regular and circular, or of the Sun's apparent revolution from an equinox to the
at least that it is best described in terms of a system of same equinox again), and also for the sidereal year (the
regular motion in circles. In the system of movable period of the Sun's apparent revolution from a fixed star to
eccentrics, the centres of the supposed orbits of bodies
the same fixed star). Again he was extremely accurate, so
around the Earth were themselves revolving around the that his value for the tropical year was too great by only 6
Earth. In the other, epicycles were small circles
1/2 minutes.
theoretically imposed on the great circular orbital paths,
which were called deferents. The epicycle-deferent
mechanism was found with that of the movable eccentric in Observations of star positions measured in terms of celestial
Ptolemy's late form of the geocentric system of cosmology. latitude and longitude, as was customary in antiquity, were
It was, of course, this Ptolemaic geocentric system that was carried out by Hipparchus and entered in a catalog--the
first star catalog ever to be completed. Hipparchus
handed down to western European science, but it must be
measured the stellar positions with greater accuracy than
remembered that the views of Hipparchus had a profound
any observer before him, and his observations were of use
influence on Ptolemy, as he himself acknowledged. It was
to Ptolemy and even later to Edmond Halley. To catalog the
stars was thought by some of Hipparchus' contemporaries to
be an impiety, but he persevered. Hipparchus had been
stimulated in 134 BC by observing a "new star." Concluding
that such a phenomenon indicated a lack of permanency in
the number of "fixed" stars, he determined to catalog them,
and no criticism was able to deflect him from his original
purpose.
Hipparchus' catalog, completed in 129 BC, listed about 850
stars (not 1,080 as is often stated), the apparent
brightnesses of which were specified by a system of six
magnitudes similar to that used today. For its time, the
catalog was a monumental achievement.
In his work on the Sun and Moon Hipparchus used the
observations of others as well as his own. He showed that
the system based on movable eccentrics and that based on
epicycles and deferents were equivalent in the motions
they gave for the Sun and Moon and, indeed, for the
planets. Both methods gave the position of the Sun correct
to within 1', and Hipparchus rejected the peculiar notion,
prevalent in his day, that the Sun moved in an orbit inclined
to the ecliptic. Hipparchus also redetermined the
inclination of the ecliptic and obtained a value correct to
within 5' of the modern figure.
The motion of the Moon is more complex than that of the
Sun, owing to the perturbations that the Moon suffers from
both Earth and Sun; in consequence, there are more
irregularities to be taken into consideration. Hipparchus
satisfactorily accounted for that inequality of the Moon's
motion that is now known to be due to the elliptical form of
its orbit; he utilized the system of circular epicycles and
deferent but proposed that the deferent was inclined at an
angle of 5 to the ecliptic. His theory gave reasonably
satisfactory results for the motion at Full and New Moon.
Hipparchus was dissatisfied however, for, as he
appreciated, the errors at quadrature (when the Moon
stands at first and last quarters) were too great. He
concluded that there was some further inequality in the
Moon's motion, but he was unable to discover any means of
solving this problem, and he said candidly that he was
leaving the solution of this question to those who were to
follow him.
Hipparchus also attacked the problem of the relative size of in this field. His main contribution was to apply rigorous
the Sun and Moon and their distance from the Earth. It had mathematical principles to the determination of places on
long been appreciated, of course, that the apparent
diameter of each was the same, and various astronomers
had attempted to measure the ratio of size and distance of today. Hipparchus was, no doubt, led to this method by his
the two bodies. Eudoxus obtained a value of 9:1, Phidias
(father of Archimedes) 12:1, Archimedes himself 30:1;
while Aristarchus believed 20:1 to be correct. The present-
day value is, approximately, 393:1. Hipparchus followed the
method used by Aristarchus, a procedure that depends upon
measuring the breadth of the Earth's shadow at the distance
of the Moon (the measurement being made by timing the
transit of the shadow across the Moon's disk during a lunar
eclipse). This method really gives the parallax (the
apparent change in the position of a celestial body when
observed from two different directions), and thus the
distance, of the Moon, the parallax for the Sun being too
small to give a significant result; moreover the accuracy
obtainable for the distance even of the Moon is poor.
Dissatisfied with his results, Hipparchus attempted to find
the limits within which the solar parallax must lie for
observations and calculations of a solar eclipse to agree; he
hoped that differences between solar and lunar parallax
might thus also be revealed. He obtained no satisfactory
result from his efforts, however, and concluded that the
solar parallax was probably negligible. At least he
appreciated that the distance of the Sun was very great
indeed.
Hipparchus was unsuccessful in forming a satisfactory
planetary theory and was scientist enough to avoid building
hypotheses on insufficient evidence. In his work Hipparchus
adopted the generally accepted order for the Sun, Moon,
and planets. With the Earth as the centre, they were, in
order from the Earth, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun,
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
It is to be expected that the astronomical work of
Hipparchus should have led him to develop certain
departments of mathematics. He made an early formulation
of trigonometry and tabulated a table of chords--i.e., the
length of the line joining two points on a unit circle
corresponding to the given angle at the centre; e.g., chord
of = 2 sin (/2): he is known to have had a method of solving
spherical triangles. It is also generally agreed that the
theorem in plane geometry known as "Ptolemy's theorem"
was originally due to Hipparchus and was later copied by
Ptolemy. During the 18th century the French statesman and
mathematician Lazare Carnot showed that the whole of
plane trigonometry can be deduced from these formulas.
Hipparchus criticized severely the geographical work of
Eratosthenes (c. 276-c. 194 BC) and himself did some work
the Earth's surface, and he was the first to do so by
specifying their longitude and latitude--the method used
work on the trigonometry of the sphere. He tried to
measure latitude by utilizing the ratio of the longest to the
shortest day at a particular place instead of following the
customary method of the Babylonians of measuring the
difference in length of day as one travels northward.
Hipparchus also divided the then known inhabited world
into climatic zones, and suggested that the longitude of
places could be determined by observing, from these
places, the moments when a solar eclipse began and ended;
but this bold scheme, while theoretically satisfactory for a
small area of the Earth's surface, was not a practical
proposition in his day.
Hero Of Alexandria
Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria (Greek: Ἥρων ὁ
Ἀλεξανδρεύς) (c. 10–70 AD) was an ancient Greek
mathematician who was a resident of a Roman province
(Ptolemaic Egypt); he was also an engineer who was active
in his native city of Alexandria. He is considered the
greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is
representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition.
Hero published a well recognized description of a steam-
powered device called an aeolipile (hence sometimes called
a "Hero engine"). Among his most famous inventions was a
windwheel, constituting the earliest instance of wind
harnessing on land. He is said to have been a follower of
the Atomists. Some of his ideas were derived from the
works of Ctesibius.
Much of Hero's original writings and designs have been lost,
but fortunately, some of his works were preserved in Arab
manuscripts.
Due to strong Babylonian influence in Hero's work, it was
once speculated by a minority of scholars that Hero may
have been a Greek of Egyptian or Phoenician origin, but the
modern scholarly consensus is that he was ethnically Greek.
The historian of mathematics C. B. Boyer explains that
Hero's identification as an Egyptian or a Phoenician was
largely due to the strong Babylonian influence on his work.
However at least from the days of Alexander the Great to
the close of the classical world, there undoubtedly was
much intercommunication between Greece and
Mesopotamia, and it seems to be clear that the Babylonian
arithmetic and algebraic geometry continued to exert
considerable influence in the Hellenistic world.
A number of references mention dates around 150 BC, but
these are inconsistent with the dates of his publications and
inventions. This may be due to a misinterpretation of the
phrase "first century" or because Hero was a common name.
It is almost certain that Hero taught at the Musaeum which
included the famous Library of Alexandria, because most of
his writings appear as lecture notes for courses in
mathematics, mechanics, physics and pneumatics. Although
the field was not formalized until the 20th century, it is
thought that the work of Hero, his "programmable"
automated devices in particular, represents some of the
first formal research into cybernetics.
Heron described a method of iteratively computing the
square root. It is al
so called the Babylonian method, because the Babylonians
also knew of it before Hero wrote it down. Today, though,
his name is most closely associated with Heron's Formula for
finding the area of a triangle from its side lengths.
The imaginary number, or imaginary unit, is also noted to
have been first observed by Heron while calculating the
volume of a pyramidal frustum.
The most comprehensive edition of Hero's works was
published in 5 volumes in Leipzig by the publishing house
Teubner in 1903.
Works which have sometimes been attributed to Hero, but
are now thought to have most likely been written by
someone else:
A 2007 The History Channel television show Ancient
Discoveries includes recreations of most of Heron's devices.
A 2008 The History Channel television show Ancient
Discoveries - "Ancient New York" includes a short recreation
of a fountain device that made water flow uphill.
A 1979 Soviet animated short film focuses on Heron's
invention of the aeolipile, showing him as a plain craftsman
who invented the turbine accidentally.
Almagest
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Almagest is the Latin form of the Arabic name (
‫الكتاب المجسطي‬, al-kitabu-l-mijisti, in English The
Great Compilation) of a mathematical and
astronomical treatise proposing the complex
motions of the stars and planetary paths, originally
written in Greek as Μαθηματικἠ Σύνταξις
(Mathematikē Sýntaxis, Mathematical Treatise;
later titled Hē Megálē Sýntaxis, The Great
Treatise) by Ptolemy of Alexandria, Egypt,
written in the 2nd century. Its geocentric model
was accepted as correct for more than a thousand
years in Islamic and European societies through
the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. The
Almagest is the most important source of
information on ancient Greek astronomy. The
Almagest has also been valuable to students of
mathematics because it documents the ancient
Greek mathematician Hipparchus's work, which
has been lost. Hipparchus wrote about
trigonometry, but because his works have been
lost mathematicians use Ptolemy's book as their
source for Hipparchus' works and ancient Greek
trigonometry in general.
[edit] Dating the Almagest
The date of Almagest has recently been more
precisely established. Ptolemy set up a public
inscription at Canopus, Egypt, in 147 or 148. The
late N. T. Hamilton found that the version of
Ptolemy's models set out in the Canopic
Inscription was earlier than the version in the
Almagest. Hence the Almagest cannot have been
completed before about 150, a quarter century
after Ptolemy began observing.[1]
[edit] Contents
The Almagest consists of thirteen sections, called
books, totalling 152 pages in a printed edition of
1515.[2]
 Book I contains an outline of Aristotle's
cosmology: on the spherical form of the
heavens, with the spherical Earth lying
motionless as the center, with the fixed stars
and the various planets revolving around the
Earth. Then follows an explanation of chords
with a set of chord tables; observations of the
obliquity of the ecliptic (the apparent path of
the Sun through the stars); and an
introduction to spherical trigonometry.
 Book II covers problems associated with the
daily motion attributed to the heavens,
namely risings and settings of celestial objects,
the length of daylight, the determination of
latitude, the points at which the Sun is
vertical, the shadows of the gnomon at the
equinoxes and solstices, and other
observations that change with the spectator's
position. There is also a study of the angles
made by the ecliptic with the vertical, with
tables.
 Book III covers the length of the year, and the
motion of the Sun. Ptolemy explains
Hipparchus' discovery of the precession of the
equinoxes and begins explaining the theory of
epicycles.
 Books IV and V cover the motion of the Moon,
lunar parallax, the motion of the lunar
apogee, and the sizes and distances of the Sun
and Moon relative to the Earth.
 Book VI covers solar and lunar eclipses.
 Books VII and VIII cover the motions of the
fixed stars, including precession of the
equinoxes. They also contain a star catalogue
of 1022 stars, described by their positions in
the constellations. The brightest stars were
marked first magnitude (m = 1), while the
faintest visible to the naked eye were sixth
 magnitude (m = 6). Each numerical magnitude
was twice the brightness of the following one,
which is a logarithmic scale. This system is
believed to have originated with Hipparchus.
The stellar positions too are of Hipparchan
origin, despite Ptolemy's claim to the contrary.
 Book IX addresses general issues associated
with creating models for the five naked eye
planets, as well as the motion of Mercury.
 Book X covers the motions of Venus and Mars.
 Book XI covers the motions of Jupiter and
Saturn.
 Book XII covers stations and retrograde
motion, which occurs when planets appear to
pause, then briefly reverse their motion
against the background of the zodiac. Ptolemy
understood these terms to apply to Mercury
and Venus as well as the outer planets.
 Book XIII covers motion in latitude, that is, the geometrical toolbox and a partial set of models for the newer models. As a result, the older texts
deviation of planets from the ecliptic.
[edit] Ptolemy's cosmos
The cosmology of the Almagest includes five main century BC) had crafted mathematical models of
points, each of which is the subject of a chapter in the motion of the Sun and Moon. Hipparchus had The first translations into Arabic were made in the
Book I. What follows is a close paraphrase of
[3]
Ptolemy's own words from Toomer's translation.
 The celestial realm is spherical, and moves as create accurate models for the remaining five
a sphere.
 The Earth is a sphere.
 The Earth is at the center of the cosmos.
 The Earth, in relation to the distance of the
fixed stars, has no appreciable size and must
be treated as a mathematical point.[4]
 The Earth does not move.
[edit] Ptolemy's planetary model
Ptolemy assigned the following order to the
planetary spheres, beginning with the innermost:
1. Moon Ptolemy wrote the Almagest as a textbook of
2. Mercury mathematical astronomy. It explained geometrical
3. Venus models of the planets based on combinations of
4. Sun circles, which could be used to predict the motions
5. Mars of celestial objects. In a later book, the Planetary
6. Jupiter Hypotheses, Ptolemy explained how to transform
7. Saturn his geometrical models into three-dimensional
8. Sphere of fixed stars spheres or partial spheres. In contrast to the
mathematical Almagest, the Planetary Hypotheses
Other classical writers suggested different is sometimes described as a book of cosmology.
sequences. Plato (c. 427 – c. 347 BC) placed the
Sun second in order after the Moon. Martianus
Capella (5th century A.D.) put Mercury and [edit] Impact
Venus in motion around the Sun. Ptolemy's
authority was preferred by most medieval Islamic Ptolemy's comprehensive treatise of mathematical
and late medieval European astronomers. astronomy superseded most older texts of Greek
astronomy. Some were more specialized and thus
Ptolemy inherited from his Greek predecessors a of less interest; others simply became outdated by
predicting where the planets would appear in the ceased to be copied and were gradually lost. Much
sky. Apollonius of Perga (c. 262 – c. 190 BC) had of what we know about the work of astronomers
introduced the deferent and epicycle and the like Hipparchus comes from references in the
eccentric deferent to astronomy. Hipparchus (2nd Almagest.
some knowledge of Mesopotamian astronomy, 9th century, with two separate efforts, one
and he felt that Greek models should match those sponsored by the caliph Al-Ma'mun. By this time,
of the Babylonians in accuracy. He was unable to the Almagest was lost in Western Europe, or only
dimly remembered in astrological lore.
planets. Consequently, Western Europe rediscovered
Ptolemy from translations of Arabic versions. In
The Almagest adopted Hipparchus' solar model, the 12th century a Spanish version was produced,
which consisted of a simple eccentric deferent. For which was later translated into Latin under the
the Moon, Ptolemy began with Hipparchus' patronage of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Gerard of Cremona translated the Almagest into
epicycle-on-deferent, then added a device that
Latin directly from the Arabic version. Gerard
historians of astronomy refer to as a "crank
[5]
mechanism": He succeeded in creating models found the Arabic text in Toledo, Spain. Gerard of
for the other planets, where Hipparchus had failed, Cremona was unable to translate many technical
by introducing a third device called the equant. terms; he even retained the Arabic Abrachir for
Hipparchus.
In the 15th century, a Greek version appeared in it is looking to the right.
Move just two matches and remove dust from the shovel.
Western Europe. The German astronomer
Johannes Müller (known as Regiomontanus) made
an abridged Latin version at the instigation of the
Greek churchman Johannes, Cardinal Bessarion.
Around the same time, George of Trebizond made
a full translation accompanied by a commentary  
that was as long as the original text. George's
translation, done under the patronage of Pope House
Nicholas V, was intended to supplant the old
translation. The new translation was a great
improvement; the new commentary was not, and 1. Move just two matches to make eleven squares.
 
2. Move four matches and form 15 squares.
aroused criticism.[citation needed] The Pope declined the Solution
dedication of George's work,[citation needed] and
Regiomontanus's translation had the upper hand
Key
for over 100 years.
 

During the 16th century, Guillaume Postel, who Scales 1. Move four matches so that three squares are created.
had been on an embassy to the Ottoman Empire, 2. Move three matches so that two rectangles are created.
3. Move two matches so that two rectangles are created.
brought back Arabic disputations of the Almagest,
such as the works of al-Kharaqī, Muntahā al-idrāk Move 5 matches to make the scales balanced.
fī taqāsīm al-aflāk ("The Ultimate Grasp of the
Divisions of Spheres", 1138/9).[6]

Commentaries on the Almagest were written by

Theon of Alexandria (extant), Pappus of
Alexandria (only fragments survive), and
Ammonius Hermiae (lost).  
  Solution
Solution
 
Move one matchstick to get 4 identical triangles. Solution
Touch

Cow
Place six matches in such a way that each match is in touch
  with all the other five matches.

This cow has the following parts: head, body, horns, legs
Shovel and tail. It is looking to the left. Move two matches so that

 
Solution