FC-0801-1

Principles of Science
Foundation Course
WF 15.00-16.30 AC03-005

Lecturers:
Prof. Alok Bhattacharya (Biology)
Prof. Somak Raychaudhury (Physics)

Teaching Fellow: Sahithi Vedula

Teaching Assistant: Kushal Jain
SR Lecture 2 (13/09/23)
Space and Time: Plato’s Universe. Aristotle, Calendars
 Focus of the course: Astronomy/Astrophysics and Biology

• The Nature of Time and Time in Nature

– How Time is perceived in Physics and in physical systems
– How Time is important in Biological systems: Evolution
– How timescales is these two fields are related
– The Arrow of Time
• How Time and Ages are measured
– Keeping Time. The motion of the Sun and Stars
– Clocks. The Longitude problem
– Age of the Earth – radioactive dating
– Ages of stars
– Precision measurement of time- Atomic clocks and Pulsars.
– The Expanding Universe and its Age. The Future of the Universe
Astronomers use angles to denote the positions and apparent
sizes of objects in the sky

The angular size of the Moon is 0.5º

 The Local Sky
An object’s altitude (above horizon) and direction
(along horizon) specifies its location in your local
sky
Celestial Sphere
All through the night

All stars revolve

around the Pole
relative to us

Some stars don’t set

at all
Some stars never rise,
depending on where
you are
Latitude and
the Pole Star

O'
λ
O

H 2O P2  90  P2OZ  ZOE



Angle of elevation of Latitude λ

Polaris
 Dec. 21
Winter Solstice

March 21
Vernal Equinox

June 21
Summer Solstice

Sept. 21
Autumnal equinox
 The Sun rises at a
different place on
the horizon every
day

Image Credit & Copyright: Zaid M. Al-Abbadi

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201221.html
Looking at the Sky

Constellations:
-Originally vague
-Mostly Greek
-Now well defined, including
the southern hemisphere
-Total of 88 to cover the sky

Asterisms:
-Less Formal Groups (Big
Dipper)

12
 Names of stars
• Proper names mostly from Arabic
astronomy
• Astronomers use
(, , , , ... ) + Constellation
Name in approximate order of
brightness
• Alpha Orionis = Betelgeuse
• Beta Orionis = Rigel
• Alpha Tauri = Aldebaran
• Numbers and other schemes for
fainter stars. (About 6000 stars
are visible to naked eye.)

Orion 14
Horizons, by Seeds)
 The Shape of the Earth
Aristotle’s arguments

• Early sea-faring peoples noticed that ships disappeared

over the horizon, but most ships returned
• Only on a sphere do all objects seek the centre by falling
straight down
• The view of the Constellations change as one travels
North or South
• The Earth shadow is always round during Lunar Eclipses
 The Shape of the Earth
Aristotle’s arguments
 The Shape of the Earth
Aristotle’s arguments

• Early sea-faring peoples noticed that ships disappeared

over the horizon, but most ships returned
• Only on a sphere do all objects seek the centre by falling
straight down
• The view of the Constellations change as one travels
North or South
• The Earth shadow is always round during Lunar Eclipses
 Ancient Astronomy
• Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Bronze-age British,
Indians, Mayans, Polynesians
– Sophisticated knowledge of celestial motions and seasons
– Developed calendars and predicted eclipses
• Chinese
– Long, detailed record of unusual events
• Comets
• Novae, supernovae
• All these cultures viewed universe as geocentric
– How would the sky look if Sun and planets really did orbit the
Earth?
 The early Greeks and their contributions
• Plato 427 – 347 B.C. Simple motion using spheres
Perfection of the heavens,
• Eudoxus 390 – 337 B.C. Retrograde motion

• Aristotle 384 – 322 B.C. Shape of Earth, Multiple

Spheres

• Aristarchus 310 - 230 B.C. Heliocentric Model, Size of the

Moon, Distance of the Sun

• Eratosthenes 276 - 194 B.C. Size of the Earth

• Hipparchus 190 - 120 B.C. Size of the Moon, Distance of

the Sun. Star Catalogs, Stellar
Magnitudes, Precession

• Ptolemy 83 - 168 A.D. Models for planetary motion

 Ancient Astronomy
• Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Bronze-age British,
Mayans, Polynesians
– Sophisticated knowledge of celestial motions and seasons.
– Developed calendars and predicted eclipses
• Chinese
– Long, detailed record of unusual events in the sky
• Comets
• Novae, supernovae
• All these cultures viewed universe as geocentric
– How would the sky look if Sun and planets really did orbit the
Earth?
 Early Greeks and Their Contributions
• Plato 427 – 347 B.C. Simple motion using spheres
Perfection of the heavens,

• Eudoxus 390 – 337 B.C. Retrograde motion

• Aristotle 384 – 322 B.C.Shape of Earth, Multiple

• Aristarchus 310 - 230 B.C. Heliocentric Model, Size of the

Moon, Distance of the Sun

• Eratosthenes 276 - 194 B.C. Size of the Earth

• Hipparchus 190 - 120 B.C. Size of the Moon, Distance of

the Sun. Star Catalogs, Stellar Magnitudes, Precession

• Ptolemy 83 - 168 A.D. Models for planetary motion

21
 Aristotle’s Universe:
Shape of the Earth

• Aristotle knew the Earth was round:

– Shadow of Earth during lunar eclipse
– Changing height of Polaris and the rotation of Constellations as
you moved south

• Eratosthenes measured size of Earth

to better than 20%
– ~200 BC, Greek living in Alexandria Egypt
– Observed that
• Sun was overhead at Syene on summer solstice
• Sun was 7o to the south of zenith at Alexandria
– Circumference of Earth must be 360/7 times
distance from Syene to Alexandria
From Voyages by Fraknoi et al.
22
 Eratosthenes and the Radius of the
Earth
• Eratosthenes has heard that the Sun shines directly
down a well in Syene on a particular day of the
year, i.e., at zenith. On that day he notes that it is
significantly south of the zenith at Alexandria.

– He knows the Earth is round from the shape of the

Earth’s shadow during an eclipse.

• He realizes he can now measure the Earth’s radius.

Eratosthenes and the Radius
of the Earth

• Recall the arc-length formula

( s = rq)

• So, D = RE q if q is in radians

• D = 5000 stadia (~ 800 km)

– q = 7.o2 = 0.1257 radian
(Eratosthenes)

• RE = 800/0.1257 = 6364 km
(Actually 6378 km, so very close!)

24
 Aristarchus and the Scale of the Solar System
• Aristarchus realized that the relative geometry of the Earth, Moon
and Sun can be determined
• Time between phases of the Moon
give the distance of the Sun
relative to that of the Moon
• Angular size of the Moon
compared to that of the Earth’s
shadow gives the size and distance
of the Moon relative to the Earth’s
radius.
• Given the Earth’s radius
(Eratosthenes) the scale of the
Solar System can be computed.

25
 Aristarchus (summary)
• Aristarchus concluded:
– Sun is about 19 times further away than the Moon
(actually about 390 times further away!)
– Sun is about 7 times bigger than the Earth
• (actually about 109 times bigger!)
• Although his values are pretty far off the importance is the use
of geometry and algebra to astronomy.
• Aristarchus also advocated a heliocentric theory for the Solar
System.
– Aristotle had rejected this since stars don’t show parallax.
– Aristarchus argued that this is simply because the stars are very far away
and similar to the Sun.
– None of his writings survived so his work was mostly forgotten.

26
 ARISTOTLE
PLATO Ethics
Timaeus De Caelo
428-348 BC 384-322 BC

RAPHAEL
1509-1511
Plato proposed that four of these solids built the Four Elements:

•sharp-pointed tetrahedra give the sting of Fire,

•Smooth-sliding octahedra give easily-parted Air,
•droplety icosahedra give Water, and
•lumpish, packable cubes give Earth.
•The dodecahedron, at last, is the shape of the Universe as a whole.

•Later Aristotle revised Plato's system, suggesting that dodecahedra provide

a fifth essence—the space-filling Ether
Regular Convex (Platonic) Solids
In Platonic solids all sides are congruent
The same size and shape.

They can be:

Source: Wikapedia 29
Regular Convex (Platonic) Solids

Tetrahedron
(Triangular Pyramid)
Source: Wikapedia 30
Regular Convex (Platonic) Solids

Hexahedron
(Cube)
31
Regular Convex (Platonic) Solids

Octahedron
32
Regular Convex (Platonic) Solids

Dodecahedron
33
Regular Convex (Platonic) Solids

Icosahedron
34
Plato proposed that four of these solids built the Four Elements:

•sharp-pointed tetrahedra give the sting of Fire,

•Smooth-sliding octahedra give easily-parted Air,
•droplety icosahedra give Water, and
•lumpish, packable cubes give Earth.
•The dodecahedron, at last, is the shape of the Universe as a whole.

•Later Aristotle revised Plato's system, suggesting that dodecahedra provide

a fifth essence—the space-filling Ether
The thirteenth and final book of Euclid's Elements, the
grand synthesis of Greek geometry that is the founding
text of axiomatic mathematics, culminates with the
construction of the five Platonic solids, and a proof that
they exhaust the possibilities.
 Platonic Solids
http://www.mathsisfun.com/platonic_solids.html
41
Time and Calendars

2006
 A Brief History of Timekeeping

Two Grandfather Clocks

(17th and 18th Centuries)

Pocket Watch
and
Ancient Sundial Wristwatch
(1 or 2nd Century AD)
st
(19th Century)

Modern “Atomic
Clock”

First atomic clock, (US

National Bureau of
Standards, 1949)
 A Pendulum Timer
1. Take a lightweight string that is about 1 meter (40 inches) long.
Attach a heavy bob to one end and a key-ring to the other.
2. Hang the pendulum from a long nail, so that the bob is
away from the wall and close to the floor or desktop.
3. Gently swing the pendulum and time 60 of its swings from
one side to the other. The time should be about 1 minute.
If it’s a bit less than 1 min, make the string a little longer;
if it’s a bit more, shorten the string. Repeat this until
each swing takes almost exactly 1 second.

The time for one swing (in seconds) is related to the

length of the string (in meters) by the equation:
Side-to-side swing time   Length
So to make a side-to-side swing take 2 seconds,
the string length must be about 4 meters.
 How Mechanical Clocks Work
1. There is a lever that oscillates about an axis;
much like a pendulum, but not hanging

2. Each oscillation causes a cogged (escape)

wheel to rotate by a small amount

3. The movement of the escape wheel

is transferred to hand movements
via gears that reduce the speed

4. A spring is used to give the

oscillating lever a gentle push
so that it does not slow down

The oscillating element

can be in the shape of a
wheel (balance wheel),
but the idea is the same
 Converting Oscillations to Rotation

Oscillations of the blue wheel

turn the escape wheel by
pushing its teeth, as shown
in the animation to the right

Oscillations of the red wheel

cause the Y-shaped lever to
move and to push the teeth of
the escape wheel
 A Brief History of Calendars
The purpose of a calendar system is to keep track of time periods that
are linked to astronomical events (day = one rotation of the Earth
around its axis, month = one revolution of the Moon around the Earth,
year = one revolution of the Earth around the Sun). Week is the only
calendar time convention that is not linked to astronomical events.

1. There are 40 different calendar systems in use today.

2. Our calendar system is called the “Gregorian Calendar”; there are

also
Chinese, Hebrew, Indian, Islamic, Persian, and many other calendars.
3. Ancient Egyptians were the first to use years consisting of 365 days;
early Chinese and Greek years were 354 days, as is the Jewish year;
at various times, there have been both shorter and longer years
(for example, 46 BC, nicknamed “year of confusion,” had 445 days,
because Julius Caesar added 80 days to it so that the following year
in his reformed calendar would conform to the solar year).
 The Julian calendar

• The Julian Calendar, introduced

in 45 BCE, was a great
improvement over previous
calendars, but by the 16th
century, it was registering 10
days ahead of the astronomical
events it should have tracked.
– The Julian Calendar had 365 days
per year and one extra “leap day”
every 4 years.
 The Gregorian Calendar

• In 1582, Pope Gregory adopted a new

calendar to replace the Julian calendar.
• The Gregorian calendar, which we use today,
has 365 days per year, with one extra day
every fourth year.
– But not if the year is a century year.
– Unless it is divisible by 400.
– Hence it adds 100-3=97 days every 400 years –
three less than the Julian calendar.
 Change from Julian to Gregorian
• 1582 for much of Catholic Europe
• 1700 Protestant German countries
• 1752 Great Britain and its colonies
– Sept 2, 1752 was followed by Sept. 14, 1752
– Early colonial dates may be given as “old style” or “new style”
• Birthday of Isaac Newton was Christmas Day, but according to our
Gregorian calendar (which has undergone several corrections) he
was born on January 4, 1643. This is because we adopted in 1750
and at that time 11 days were cancelled in September
 Why Do We Need Leap Years?
1. One calendar year (Earth’s revolution around the Sun on average) is
365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes (365.2424 Universal days).
2. After four 365-day years, we are left with 4  0.2424 = 0.9696 extra day,
or almost one day. This is why we make every fourth year a leap year.
3. But an extra day is a little bit more than 0.9696 day. The extra 0.0304
day adds up to a full day every 33 leap years, or in about 132 years.
4. It is rather inconvenient to make a correction every 132 years, so we
drop the leap year every 100 years and put it back in every 400 years.
5. When we drop the leap year every 100 years, we remove one day
instead of 0.0304  25 = 0.76 days every 25 leap years. This is ¼ day
less than what it should be. So, every four centuries, or 400 years, we
make a correction by using a leap year. This makes it just about right.
Very infrequently (every 1000s of years), we need more corrections.
Interesting fact: Some years have a leap second added to them to
correct for variations in timekeeping by atomic clocks around the world.
 Other Calendars:

Month always begins at new Moon; months are 29 or 30

days long.
Chinese: one year contains 12 or 13 months (354 or
384 days – leap year).
Islamic: one year contains 12 months (354 days).
Jewish: one year contains 12 or 13 months (354 or 384
days – leap year).
 The Universe of Plato and Aristotle:
The motion of the planets
• Heavens composed of “perfect” fifth element
– Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Quintessence
– Heavens are unchanging except for rotation:
• Motion produced by multiple nested spheres
– Rotate at constant rate
– Are offset and inclined in ways to produce motion of planets
– Our “Celestial Sphere” of stars is just the outermost of many he
had. VERY complicated for a “perfect” system!
The Universe according to
Aristotle (and Ptolemy)
 Aristotle’s Universe: Motion of planets
• Heavens composed of “perfect” fifth element
– Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Quintessence
– Heavens are unchanging except for rotation:
• Motion produced by multiple nested spheres
– Rotate at constant rate
– Are offset and inclined in ways to produce motion of planets
– Our “Celestial Sphere” of stars is just the outermost of many
he had. VERY complicated for a “perfect” system!

56
 Retrograde Motion
• Planets stay almost on the ecliptic
• Most of the time they move East (relative to stars)
• Rates drop from Mercury to Venus to Mars to Jupiter to Saturn.
• Superior planets exhibit “retrograde” motion near opposition.
 Aristotle’s Universe
55 spheres
– real & made of aether

- no space between them

Celestial bodies attached

Rotate at different
velocities
Why geocentric-geostatic model?
Dominance of Aristotelian world system
~ Earthly

- corruptible

- earth absolutely heavy

- reaches proper place and stops

~ Celestial

- Heavens perfect
- Objects in Heavens unchanging

- Only motion in Heavens is circular motion

 Why can’t the Earth be moving?
Rotation

• Earth ≈ 40,000 km in circumference at equator

• 1 rotation in 24 hours

• Speed at equator 1,670 km per hour

(460 m/s)

• If 1 sec for object to fall – floor “moves” almost 500

m
 Why can’t the Earth be moving?

Revolution
• Earth’s period (assume circular [2πr]) miles ≈ 9.4 x
108 km

• Period = 365 days x 24 hr/day = 8760 hr

• Velocity ≈ 107,208 km/hr

Parallax
Parallax Effect
 Parallax Effect

Large Parallax Angle

Small Parallax Angle

 Problems
• observations - not possible with “simple” circular
models

~ apparent size / brightness of planets vary

~ apparent speed of planets vary

~ planets have different shapes of retrograde motion

 The Phases of the Moon

Northern Hemisphere

Southern Hemisphere
The Lunar Calendar- monthly variation
Apollo 17
Length of a Month
• Sidereal month: Moon
orbits Earth in 27.3 days.
• Earth & Moon travel 30°
around Sun during that
time (30°/360° = 1/12)
• Synodic month: A cycle
of lunar phases; therefore
takes about 29.5 days,
1/12 longer than a sidereal
month
 Motion of the Sun through the year
– Follow position of Sun relative to stars, over one full year.
• Each morning stars further east are revealed. Can determine day of the year (when to
plant crops) by when a given star is seen.
• Over the course of 1 year the entire sky is visible.

From Horizons, by Seeds)

Apparent path of sun around the sky is called the ECLIPTIC

Set of constellations through which it passes is called the ZODIAC
The Moon helps to cause precession, a slow,
conical motion of Earth’s axis of rotation
 Motion of the Sun through the year
– Follow position of Sun relative to stars, over one full year.
• Each morning stars further east are revealed. Can determine day of the year (when to
plant crops) by when a given star is seen.
• Over the course of 1 year the entire sky is visible.

From Horizons, by Seeds)

Apparent path of sun around the sky is called the ECLIPTIC

Set of constellations through which it passes is called the ZODIAC
The Moon helps to cause precession, a slow,
conical motion of Earth’s axis of rotation
 Motion of the Sun through the year
– Follow position of Sun relative to stars, over one full year.
• Each morning stars further east are revealed. Can determine day of the year (when to
plant crops) by when a given star is seen.
• Over the course of 1 year the entire sky is visible.

From Horizons, by Seeds)

It takes approximately 2,160 years for the vernal equinox to move from one
constellation of the zodiac into the next. Now it is the “Age of Aquarius” even
though 21 March is known as the “First Point of Aries”
 Ptolemy’s geocentric model:

Belief in Ptolemy’s
geocentric model
lasted until the
16th century.

Cosmographia, first published 1524