HOW WE CAME

TO REALIZE
THAT EARTH IS
NOT THE
CENTER OF THE
UNIVERSE?
GREEK VIEWS
OF MATTER
AND MOTION

Your Name
Class Name
They believed that objects were made up
of four elements: air, earth, fire, and
water.

They supposed that there were different

types of motion that caused stationary
objects to move and moving objects to
stop.
OF MOTION
ACCORDING
TO
ARISTOTELI
AN
MECHANICS
 Natural
 Voluntary

 Involuntary
Natural motion
 the tendency of objects to go back to
their natural state
 For example, the natural motion of a

rock, which is made up of the element

earth, is to go downward or toward the
ground. This notion explained why a
stone that was thrown upward always
fell back to the ground.
Voluntary motion

 the ability of humans (as well as

other animals) to move because
they have the will or the capacity to
do so
Involuntary motion

 the motion caused by unnatural

conditions
 For example, a plant does not have

the ability to move around, but it

can be mechanically moved by air
or water.
NON-TERRESTRIAL
MOTION,
ACCORDING TO THE
ANCIENT GREEK
ASTRONOMERS
Your Name
Class Name
Diurnal motion

 refers to the apparent movement of

stars and other celestial bodies
around the Earth. It is caused by
Earth’s rotation from west to east.
Diurnal motion
Annual motion

 refers to the apparent yearly

movement of the Sun across a
background of stars. This
movement is caused by Earth’s
revolution around the Sun.
Annual motion
Precession

 refers to the conical motion of

Earth’s axis as it spins. Because of
precession, Earth’s axis shifts very
slowly, completing one cycle every
26 000 years.
Precession
 SHAPE OF THE
EARTH…
ROUND?
SPHERICAL?
PLANE OR DISK?

Your Name
Class Name
Around 500 BCE

 Pythagoras and his pupils

proposed that Earth was round
Anaxagoras (Around 430 BCE)

 Conducted observations that

supported Pythagoras’s proposal.
 He observed that during a lunar

eclipse, the Earth’s shadow was

reflected on the moon’s surface.
The shadow was circular.
Aristotle (Around 340 BCE)

 Listed several arguments for a

spherical Earth, which included the
shape of the moon and the sun, the
positions of the North Star, and the
disappearance of the ships when
they sailed over the horizon.
Aristotle (Around 340 BCE)
 Aristotle argued that if the moon and the sun were
both spherical, then perhaps, Earth was also
spherical. 
 The North Star was believed to be at a fixed position
in the sky. However, when the Greeks traveled to
places nearer the equator, like Egypt, they noticed
that the North Star is closer to the horizon. Aristotle
argued that such an observation is only possible if
Earth was round.
Aristotle (Around 340 BCE)
If the Earth was flat, then a ship traveling
away from an observer should become
smaller and smaller until it disappeared.
However, the Greeks observed that when the
ship sailed, the hull disappeared first, which
implied that the surface of the Earth was
curved.
Eratosthenes (Around 240 BCE)

 Attempted to measure the circumference of

the Earth.
 He received correspondence from Syene in

Southern Egypt. It stated that a vertical object

did not cast any shadow at noontime during
the summer solstice.
Eratosthenes (Around 240 BCE)

 However, this was not the case in Alexandria

where, at noon time during the summer
solstice, a vertical object still cast a shadow.
These observations could only mean that the
Sun, during this time in Alexandria, was not
directly overhead.
Eratosthenes (Around 240 BCE)

 Eratosthenes determined the angle that the

Sun made with the vertical direction by
measuring the shadow that a vertical stick
cast. He found out that in Alexandria, the Sun
makes an angle of 7.2° from the vertical,
whereas in Syene, the Sun makes an angle of
0°. To explain the difference, he hypothesized
that the light rays coming from the Sun were
parallel, and the Earth was curved
Eratosthenes (Around 240 BCE)

 From his measurements, Eratosthenes

computed the circumference of the Earth to be
approximately 250 000 stadia or 46 250 km (1
stadia = 185 m).
Eratosthenes (Around 240 BCE)