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Historical Foundations of Astronomy
“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants” – Isaac Newton
Astronomy and Human Society
Measuring timeKeeping track of seasons (important for
agriculture)NavigationMythology/CosmogonyTechnology
Measuring Time
The Moon and Rainfall Patterns
Measuring the Seasons
Stone Circle in Callanish, The Hebrides, Scotland
“Sun Dagger”
Big Horn Medicine Wheel, Wyoming
“Templo Mayor”, Tenochtitlan
“When you notice the daughtersof Atlas, the Pleiades, rising, start on your reaping, and onyour sowing when they aresetting.”
-- Hesiod,Works and Days(800 B.C.E.)
Mayan Observatory at Chichen Itza, Yucatan
Navigation
Mythology
Technology
The Origin of Modern Science
Eratosthenes Measures the Earth
The Library at Alexandria
The Heavenly Spheres
Ptolemy’s
ModelUniverse
“Epicycles”
The Copernican Revolution
Born in Poland, 1473Developed a Sun-centered
Model for the UniverseStill assumed circular
orbitsNot much more accurate
(or simple) than Ptolemaic Model
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
Kepler (1571-1630)
Kepler’s First Law
Law of Equal Areas
Kepler’s Third Law
Galileo (1564-1642)
Galileo’s Telescopes
Phases of Venus
Epicycle Model
Heliocentric Model
Moons of Jupiter
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Universal Law of Gravitation
