11/6/2022

WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

(BEFORE THE INVENTION OF MODERN TELESCOPES)

SYLLABUS
1. Prehistory, Mesopotamia, and Egypt
2. Greek World – Philosophy Rules
3. Hellenistic World & Christianity’s Shadow
4. Islamic World Saves Sciences
5. Renaissance and the Heliocentric Universe

6. Scientific Revolution
7. Refining Newton’s Work

WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

INTRODUCTION
• We already tracked the evolution of heliocentrism during Renaissance:
• First, theories of Copernicus, then
• Tycho-Brahe’s geo-heliocentric hybrid, and
• Finally, Kepler’s computational approach to heliocentric theory and
planetary orbits
• Now we go back to the last decades of 16th C
• TO A CONTEMPORARY OF KEPLER, GALILEO GALILEI

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642)

• Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer
• Initially a lecturer in mathematics in Padua, works on mechanics
• Appearance of a new star gets him interested in observing
heavens
• In 1608 news of a spyglass invented in Netherlands reaches
him
• He starts experimenting and builds a “telescope”
• With his telescope makes a series of observations confirming
the heliocentric hypothesis
Detail, portrait by
• And gets in trouble with the Church! Tintoretto

WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

GALILEO - EARLY WORK

• Studied pendulums and discovered the period is a function of the length
• Defined “inertial frames” and movement relative to these frames
• Stated that even if the Earth is moving this should not affect free fall
• Designed experiments to verify his assumptions
• Challenged Aristotle’s hypothesis that heavier objects fall faster with a
thought experiment (two different weights coupled)
• Started experimenting with bodies sliding down inclined planes to find a
time-distance relation Galileo’s Chandelier
Harvard Science Demos

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

GALILEO - EARLY WORK

• Ballistics – trajectories: His studies showed the independence
of vertical and horizontal motion
• Inclined planes: he resolved the “gravitas” of the sliding object
into the perpendicular and parallel components
• Devised a mechanism to study the motion of two slightly
different weights,
• introducing a concept like inertia in modern mechanics
• producing the concept of conservation of momentum
• Using the same mechanism with equal weights proved that
uniform motion does not require a constant force
Galileo's Inclined Plane
Harvard Science Demos

WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

GALILEO - CORRESPONDENCE WITH KEPLER

• Galileo and Kepler exchanged letters on several occasions
• While Galileo was a lecturer at Padua, Kepler sent him his Mysterium
Cosmographicum (1596)
• Galileo replied saying he agreed with Copernicus and Kepler but was
reluctant to publish his own views
• Kepler wrote back “publish your proofs and let’s jointly shove the cart”
• In 1610, when Galileo published Sidereus Nuncius, Kepler supported his
views publicly
• Despite these exchanges, Galileo in 1632 still claimed he did not know the
true shape of planetary orbits

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

JUPITER - SATURN CONJUNCTIONS

• Jupiter and Saturn are the slowest moving planets
• Conjunctions occur every 20 years
• Each conjunction occurs 117 deg back from previous one
• It comes back to the same area of the zodiac in 240 yrs
• In medieval astrology considered to have profound effects
on Earth
• Major ones are especially significant:
• 240- and 960- year returns , and
• 200- and 800- year entry into “fiery signs”
• Some of these coincided with plagues and floods, giving
credence to astrologers

WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

JUPITER – SATURN - MARS CONJUNCTION of 1604

• 1604 was another conjunction year for Jupiter and Saturn
• During this event, they came together three times due to Jupiter’s retrograde
motion
• As the two were separating in the fall, Jupiter was approaching Mars
• This alone was exciting enough but then a brand-new star lit up in the sky
• The event caused a lot of excitement and all kinds of prophesies
• At the time, Galileo was teaching mathematics at Padua
• He gave a series of three lectures on the observed phenomenon
• This was his public debut as an astronomer

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
… it came forth as the due fruit generated by the intercourse of Mars
and Jupiter. In almost the same position as the conjunction had been
predicted the new star appeared to be born.
GALILEO and KEPLER REACT TO SN1604
• Galileo’s reaction is mysterious and poetic (partial quote above)
• He wonders if it is really in heavens or generated by vapors near the earth
• Kepler analyzes the event strictly as an astrologer
• Makes a nice drawing showing it in pede Serpentaris
• Speculates about the 800-year cycle of entry into fiery signs
• Connects 6BCE conjunction to Jesus and the star of Bethlehem
• Connects the 800CE to the coronation of Charlemagne
• Foretells start of a new age? Second coming of Christ?

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

KEPLER’S STAR (SN SN1604)

• Kepler publishes De Stella Nova in 1606
• Soon SN1604 it becomes known as
“Kepler’s Star”

LINK TO THE FULL ARTICLE

[00-00] FOCUS Snovae-fin .indd (dioi.org)

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GALILEO’S TELESCOPE
• Several inventors in Netherlands start making spyglasses
• Galileo hears about the invention and makes one in 1609
• The first one has a magnification of about 3
• He improves his design using different lenses and achieves 8,
KEPLERIAN
then 20
• He starts observing the celestial objects with his telescopes
• These primitive telescopes allows him to observe previously
undetectable details
• Kepler also designs a refractory telescope but never builds it GALILEAN

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

GALILEO’S TELESCOPE
• He makes some observations and quickly publishes his
findings under the title Sidereus nuncius
• He later observes Saturn and says it has two smaller
globes on either side (the rings)
• Galileo’s observations cause a hostile reaction from
fellow professors at Padua
• Two leading astronomers (Clavius and Magini) dismiss
his observations SATURN THROUGH A 3″ SCOPE AT 100X
(SIMULATED IMAGE FROM ENERDYNE )
• Colleagues refuse to look thru the telescope
• Kepler accepts Galileo’s findings, declares the
telescope a useful tool for better measurements

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GALILEO – MOONS OF JUPITER

• On January 7, 1610, he observed three small dim
“stars” next to Jupiter
• Night after night he continued his observations and Galileo’s handwritten notes
realized these were not stars
• On January 13th he discovered a fourth one
• Following them over several weeks and observing their
tracks concluded that they are orbiting Jupiter
• Named them Medicean Stars in honor of Cosimo de
Medici
• Quickly published his findings in Sidereus nuncius

Page from Sidereus nuncius

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

GALILEO – MOON & SUNSPOTS

• Galileo observed that the surface of the moon was not a
smooth, perfect sphere
• He sketched what he saw quite skillfully
• He even attempted to calculate the height of the mountains he
observed
• Included his observations in Sidereus nuncius (top figure)
• Observing the sun, noticed spots indicating sun may not be a
perfect sphere
• Observed the spots moving across the face of the sun,
concluded sun must also be rotating

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GALILEO - TROUBLE WITH THE CHURCH

• Galileo went to Rome with his instruments in 1611
• Clavius confirmed Galileo’s discoveries but did not confirm his theory
• Jesuit Order were put under orders to “defend Aristotle”
• Initially the Pope and the Jesuit community were not hostile, just not convinced
• In 1616, Galileo had to defend heliocentric theory against a Church agitated by the
clerics
• His attempts to prove his theory did not convince the authorities,
• He was admonished to abandon it
• After keeping quiet for 15 years Galileo decided to try again using a literary device
• He wrote “Dialogo sopra i due massimi systemi del mondo”

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

GALILEO - “Dialogo sopra i due massimi systemi del mondo”

• The work had the form of a dialogue among two philosophers and a layman
• Simplicio, a follower of Ptolemy and Aristotle, presented the Church position
• Salviati presented the Copernican position (and Galileo's own views)
• Sagredo, a Venetian intellectual (initially neutral) was the “moderator”
• It was written in Italian, so it was accessible. Quickly became very popular
• The work finished Aristotle's doctrines of motion and his cosmology
• Although the Inquisition imprimatur had been given, the Jesuits started agitating
• Pope took offense because Simplicio was using the language Holy See used
• Galileo was tried and was found to be "vehemently suspect of heresy"

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

GRAVITY AND ORBITAL MOTION

• Copernicus had speculated that mutual attraction of its parts caused earth’s
spherical shape
• Kepler speculated that the moon’s attraction caused the tides
• But no scientist in the seventeenth century had a clear concept of gravity
• And none tied gravity to orbital motion:
• Per Kepler, directive force of the sun caused the orbital motion of the planets
• Descartes and the followers of his theory of vortices did not connect orbital
motion and gravity either
• Galileo came close to the idea of acceleration of gravity in solving free fall
problems (he computed g = ~ 30ft/ sec )
• Huygens in 1673 deduced that the centrifugal force was proportional to v /r
• Then came Newton and his apple!

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

ISAAC NEWTON (1642 – 1727)

• Son of a farmer, he was born in the hamlet of Woolsthorpe
• Educated at the local grammar school learnt Greek, Latin, and math
• Was admitted to the Trinity College at Cambridge in 1661, where the
teaching was based on Aristotle
• On his own, he studied works of Kepler, Galileo, and Descartes
• Because of pestilence the university was temporarily closed in 1665
• Returned home and studied mathematics, optics, and falling objects
• Realized gravitational force varied with the distance
• Using the math (calculus) methods he constructed, he developed the
laws that govern celestial orbits
• Published his Principia Mathematica in 1687 establishing his fame
1702 Portrait by
Sir Godfrey Kneller

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NEWTON – EARLY WORK ON GRAVITY

• In the two years away from the university (1665-1667) he worked on various
questions he noted down at Cambridge
• He assumed that gravity that pulls things towards the center of the earth may
be what’s keeping moon in its orbit
• His computations resulted in a g value smaller than the known value of ~30
• The reason was an error he made in computing the length of a one-degree
arc on earth’s surface
• So, he abandoned this idea and concentrated on optics
• Using a prism, separated the white light into the colors of the rainbow
• Concluded that color is a property intrinsic to light

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

NEWTON BUILDS A BETTER TELESCOPE

• He named the multicolored image produced by a
prism spectrum
• Back at Cambridge he lectured on optics and worked on
refraction
• He concluded that the lens of any refracting
telescope would suffer from dispersion of light
• He designed a reflecting telescope using concave mirrors
he ground
• Presented the first working model to the Royal Society in
1668
• He published his notes, then expanded these into
Opticks, a book that analyzes light

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

NEWTON TACKLES GRAVITY

• Galileo with his new machine (balanced weights over pulleys) demonstrated that
Aristotle’s ideas on motion were wrong
• In 1630s and 1640s Cavalieri and Torricelli expressed the concept of inertia in
modern form
• The circular motion being “natural” was being replaced with the idea that it was a
complex motion of interacting forces
• Studying Jupiter’s moons, in 1665 Borelli postulated that the centrifugal force of
orbital motion must be in equilibrium with the attraction of Jupiter
• In 1673, Huygens published a treatise on pendulum clock, where he
• Developed the formula for computing the period of a pendulum,
• Developed the theory on centrifugal force and showed that it was proportional to v /r

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

NEWTON TACKLES GRAVITY

• After his initial failure to compute the moon’s acceleration, Newton went back to the
problem
• In 1670s and early 1680’s he spent nearly 10 years, using;
• Kepler’s work on orbits, Galileo’s, Torricelli’s, and Huygens’ work on mechanics,
• His previous calculations, and
• Newly developed computation methods (calculus)
• Making the simplifying assumption that mass of an orb is at its center
• He produced his “Axioms, or Laws of Motion”
• Compiled the entire mathematical basis, his assumptions, development work, and
conclusions in a book in three parts
• Presented it to the Royal Society in 1686

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NEWTON’S AXIOMS
1. A body continues at rest or in uniform
motion unless it is acted upon by a force
2. The change in motion is proportional to
and in the direction of the motive force
3. To every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

NEWTON’S PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA

• The material Newton presented to the Royal Society in 1686 was
published in 1687 with the title
Philosophiæ naturalis principia mathematica
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
• Such fast publication was thanks to the efforts of Newton’s friend
Edmond Halley
• Halley even supplemented the Royal Society funds with his own
money
• It was revised twice by Newton, translated into English in 1729
• Publication of the Principia was a turning point in the Scientific
Revolution

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NEWTON’S PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA

• Gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the
distance
• Oblateness of the earth is related to gravity and rotation
• Orbits don’t have to be elliptical, can be other conics
• Planets gravity disturb each other’s orbits – Sun’s gravity
disturbs moon’s orbit
• Tides are caused by lunar attraction and influenced by
earth’s rotation
• Vortices can not exist under the established fluid
mechanics rules (Book II)
• Therefore, Descartes theory can’t be a valid explanation of
planetary mechanics

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Nature, and Nature's laws lay hid in night.

God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.
Alexander Pope

I have not as yet been able to discover the reason for these properties of
gravity from phenomena, and I do not feign hypotheses. For whatever is not
deduced from the phenomena must be called a hypothesis; and hypotheses,
whether metaphysical or physical, or based on occult qualities, or mechanical,
have no place in experimental philosophy. In this philosophy particular
propositions are inferred from the phenomena, and afterwards rendered
general by induction

Scholium from the closing of 3rd Book, 2nd Ed

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