2/2/2020 The Models of the Universe: Exodus, Aristotle, Aristarchus, Ptolemy and Copernicus | Site Title

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The Models of the Universe: Exodus, Aristotle, Aristarchus, Ptolemy

and Copernicus

Posted on November 21, 2017 by dominicsarmiento

Aristarchus

Interestingly whilst most classical models were variations on geocentric models, one of the Pythagoreans, Aristarchus of
Samos (c. 310 – 230 BC) proposed a model that placed the Sun at the centre, that is a heliocentric Universe. His model
would be familiar to us today as a reasonable description of the solar system. All the planets, including the earth,
revolved around a fixed Sun in circular orbits. The Earth rotated once a day on its axis and the Moon revolved about the
Earth.

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Credit: R. Hollow, CSIRO

Figure 1.3 In Aristarchus’ heliocentric model all the planets orbit the Sun along circular paths. The Moon orbits the Earth
which in turn spins on its axis.
Aristarchus had underestimated the distance of the earth from the Sun thus the size of possible parallax was
overestimated.
Aristotle

Aristotle’s work had a profound influence on western thought, eventually being absorbed and molded into supporting
Christian theology and dogma. He would probably have been disturbed by this. A pupil of Plato, he in turn tutored
Alexander the Great. Whilst thought of as a theoretical philosopher he also conducted experiments in several fields. His
works on astronomy and the physics of motion were wri en in On the heavens and Physics.Like Empedocles before him
Aristotle saw all ma er on Earth as being composed of combinations of only four elements; earth, air, fire and water
with the properties of cool, moist, hot and dry. The stars were made of a separate fifth element, quintessence and were
incorruptible and eternal. Motion in the heavens was natural, unforced and circular so that the planets and Sun orbited a
fixed, unmoving spherical Earth in circular orbits. On Earth, however, ma er was corruptible and subject to decay.
Motion was linear with objects requiring a force acting on them to stay in motion. It is was not until Newton in the
second half of the seventeenth century that this concept of forced motion was overthrown.

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Aristotle’s own model of the Universe was a development of that of Eudoxus who had also studied under Plato. It had a
series of 53 concentric, crystalline, transparent spheres rotating on different axes. Each sphere was centered on a
stationary Earth so the model was both geocentric and homocentric. Stars were fixed on the outer sphere. The Moon
marked the boundary between the unchanging, constant heavens and the corruptible Earth. According to Aristotelian
cosmology it was only within the sub-lunary sphere, that is between the Earth and Moon, that changeable phenomena
such as comets could exist.

Ptolemy
The last of the great classical astronomers,Claudius Ptolemy lived in Alexandria. He contributed to mathematics, optics,
geography and music but is chiefly remembered for his vast work on astronomy, known as theAlmagest. In it he
detailed a model of the Universe that profoundly influenced Western and Arabic thought for the next 1,500 years.

Ptolemy relied heavily on tools invented and observations made by earlier astronomers.Apollonius (262 – 190 BC) had
developed the concepts of the eccentric and the epicycle to explain planetary motions (see Figure 1.5
below). Hipparchus (161 – 126 BC) had organised earlier Babylonian records together with his own observations to
develop a catalogue of 850 stars. He plo ed them on a celestial sphere and introduced the concept of comparing
brightnesses on a magnitude scale that forms the basis of that still used today. Ptolemy synthesised all this work and
incorporated his own careful observations to produce a model that was to become accepted as the standard model until
the 1600s.

The Ptolemaic model had a spherical, unmoving Earth in the central region of the Universe, its natural place. Note
contrary to common misconception, it was not strictlygeocentric as the model used eccentrics; rather it was geostatic.
10,000 Earth diameters from the the centre, stars were fixed on a celestial sphere that rotated once every 24 hours. The
Sun and the five planets had their motions explained by combinations of epicycles, deferents and eccentrics. In total
some seventy circles and spheres were required.

Exodus
Eudoxos of Knidos was born approximately 395-390 BCE and lived 53 years. A polymath, he made important
contributions to geography, metaphysics, and ethics. However, his most important work was in geometry, the theory of
proportion, and astronomy. Our principal sources for his astronomy are Aristotle, Aratus (3rd cent. BCE), Hipparchus
(2nd cent. BCE), and Simplicius (6th cent. CE), although the last is our principal source for his astronomical models. The
first to present a general, geometrical model of celestial motion, Eudoxos started with five basic principles.

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1.The earth is the center of the universe.

2.All celestial motion is circular.All celestial motion is regular.
3.The center of the path of any celestial motion is the same as the center of its motion.
4.The center of all celestial motion is the center of the universe.

Since the apparent motion of all celestial bodies is neither circular nor regular, though it is about the earth, Eudoxos
needed to construct models that preserved the five principles and the appearances. This means constructing the
apparent motions as combinations of circular motions, the basic idea behind most subsequent Greek mathematical
astronomy and the basis of mathematical astronomy from Ptolemy up to Kepler.

5.The apparent irregular and non-circular motions of celestial bodies is a result of the combinations of real, circular
motions that satisfy principles (1) – (5). In other words, the models must preserve or save the phenomena.

h p://web.calstatela.edu/faculty/hmendel/Ancient%20Mathematics/Eudoxus/Astronomy/EudoxusHomocentricSpher
es.htm
(h p://web.calstatela.edu/faculty/hmendel/Ancient%20Mathematics/Eudoxus/Astronomy/EudoxusHomocentricSpher
es.htm)

Copernicus
Well over a thousand years later, Nicolaus Copernicus came up with a radical way of looking at the Universe. His
heliocentric system put the Sun (helio) at the center of our system. He was not the first to have this theory. Earlier
starwatchers had believed the same, but it was Copernicus who brought it to the world of the Renaissance and used his
own observations of the movements of the planets to back
up his idea. His ideas, including the revelation that the Earth rotates on its axis, were too different for most of the
scholars of his time to accept. They used only parts of his theory. Those who did study his work intact often did so in
secret. They were called Copernicans.h p://www.librarypoint.org/early_astronomers
(h p://www.librarypoint.org/early_astronomers)
h p://www.atnf.csiro.au/outreach/education/senior/cosmicengine/classicalastronomy.html
(h p://www.atnf.csiro.au/outreach/education/senior/cosmicengine/classicalastronomy.html)

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