Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Megan C

Tycho Brahe, from the Galileo Project

Tycho Brahe (December 14, 1546 – October 24, 1601) was a Danish astronomer who is an important astronomical figure because of his naked eye observations. Before the telescope, he amassed a great trove of extremely accurate data that would be used by Kepler to develop his Three Laws of Planetary Motion. This means he basically provided the data that would begin the move to the sun-centered model of the universe as the norm. He witnessed a supernova and observed that the stars must be further away than previously thought. He was essentially the last astronomer to user only what he could see instead of using telescopes to look at the sky.Craters on both the Moon and the planet Mars are named after him.

For additional information:

Contemporary Figures:

  • Andreas Vesalius (December 31, 1514 – October 15, 1564) was a professor and court physician regarded as the father of the study of human anatomy. He labeled the chambers of the heart and introduced the idea that the skeleton was the essential framework in the body. His detailed dissections disproved many antiquated beliefs about the human body and set the standard for highly accurate pictures and drawings of anatomical features.

Contemporary Events:

  • 1558 – Queen Elizabeth I took the throne in England in 1558. Under her rule, the Church of England was established as a Protestant church and English culture fluorished, most notably Shakespeare’s plays. 
  • 1587 – Settlers from England try to settle Roanoke Island in Virginia for the second time. The first settlement was abandoned because of lack of supplies, but the second one becomes known as “The Lost Colony” after all the colonists disappeared by 1590.

What I found interesting about this assignment was realizing just how many famous scientists and inventors lived in the same time period. The foundations of all our modern scientists really did come from this one century. I never realized that across Europe, all these great minds were at work in different places and in different fields. I always thought that the large amount of rapid scientific advancement that we are living with currently was unprecedented, but mankind’s understanding of the world basically changed completely in just a few short decades. This period of time really separates the Dark Ages from the start of modern science.

I guess the number of great scientists living at the same time and how many scientific advancements they produced in this era reinforces how important collaboration and cooperation is in science because if only one of these famous men had been around during this period, there would not be near as long a list of scientific accomplishments for us to look back on.

Sources:

  • Bennett, Jeffrey O., et al. The Cosmic Perspective: The Solar System. 6th ed. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2009. Print.
  • Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 5 Feb. 2013.

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Will K

Tycho Brahe

About Tycho:

Tycho Brahe is known as one of the most reliable naked eye observers of his time. Using an elaborate naked eye observatory sponsored by King Frederick II, Tycho was able to accurately measure the movements of the stars. He was convinced that the Sun was the center of the solar system but he was never able to prove it from his data. Even still, his measurements and findings allowed other astronomers, like Kepler, to develop their own conclusions and calculations.

During Brahe’s Lifetime:

During Tycho Brahe’s life Ivan the Terrible of Russia came into power. He took on the title of Tsar Ivan IV and expanded the Russia across many Asian territories.  In addition, Machiavelli’s The Prince was written at this time. It was soon place on the Pope’s Index of Prohibited books because of the controversial ideas it addressed.

One important figure who lived during Tycho Brahe’s time was Elizabeth I of England. She lived from September 7, 1533 to March 24, 1603. She played an important role in England’s state religion, changing it back from Queen Mary’s Catholicism to her father’s Anglican Church.

Learning about the historical context of Tycho’s life helps to uncover some of the reasons for his pursuit of a more accurate astronomical model. It was a time of great political and cultural changes. It’s logical that this was the time that scientists started to question the accuracy of older models of the solar system. Just as religion and political alliances were changing drastically, the scientific process was changing as well. In addition, understanding the context of Tycho’s life puts into perspective how long ago his discoveries were made. It makes his accomplishments even more impressive because the modern technology that we rely on for measurement and observation was never available for him.

Bibliography:

“Elizabeth I.” Elizabeth I. Tudor History Website, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.

“History Timeline.” History Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.

“Ivan IV Biography.” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.

“Niccolo Machiavelli.” Niccolo Machiavelli Biography. Brandeis University, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.

“Tycho Brahe.” The Galileo Project. Rice University, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.


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Blast from the Past: Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 4, 2013 by staunesm

A) Galileo Galilei (Feb 16th, 1564-Jan 8th, 1642) is an important astronomer for two reasons: his inventions and his discoveries.  Although he did not invent the telescope, Galileo made the first 30x-magnifying telescope that was used to observe land, sea, and space.  He invented a simple thermometer, a compass, and originated the idea of isochronism. Most importantly, he discovered moon craters and mountains, attesting to the fact that the moon was not perfect.  Finally he found the first four moons around Saturn.

Galileo Inventions 

Quick Biographical Facts

B) One important event that occurred during Galileo’s life (1564-1642) was the St. Bartholomew’s day Massacre in France in 1572.  On this day, thousands of Calvinist Huguenots were massacred which created strong religious tensions and power struggles throughout France.

One other important event that occurred during Galileo’s life was that in 1635 the Franco-Spanish war began (the Thirty Year’s War) which changed much the political power and land distribution throughout Europe.

Historical Timeline

C) Shakespeare (1564-1616) lived during the time of Galileo. Undoubtedly, Shakespeare was influential in literature during this time.  His literary talents and focus on the human experience led him to become one of the most studied dramatists of all time.  His most famous works include: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

All About Shakespeare

D) When looking into the past, you never realize the overlap between different segments of society.   In history class, you learn the political events that occurred during a time period, while in English class you learn of literary events, while in science you learn of scientific discoveries.  In reality, we never really look at a comprehensive comparison of what occurs in each realm of society during a historical period.  It was very interesting to me that Shakespeare and Galileo were born in the same year, because both were so influential in their specific works that its amazing to think the literary genius of Shakespeare and the scientific discoveries of Galileo were occurring in the same time period. It is really neat to get a comprehensive look of all aspects on society during a historical period.


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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 4, 2013 by charlesbcochran

Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630)

Image

Johannes Kepler Bio

Figured out how to explain the motions of the planets.

Figured this out with three laws:

1) Planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun with the sun positioned at one of the foci

2) During the orbit equal areas are swept in equal durations of time

3) Relationship between distance from the sun and orbital period, given by the mathematical equation P^2 = A^3 (A refers to the orbit’s semi major axis, and P refers to the orbital period)

Historical Events: A Timeline of the 1600s

1) 1619: Slave transport begins. The first slaves from Africa arrive across the Atlantic at the city of Jamestown. This marked the beginning of the slave trade.

2) 1620: One year after the slave transport began, the first pilgrims from England arrive in the United States on the historical ship the Mayflower.

William Shakespeare: 1564 – 1616

The most renowned writer in the world, William Shakespeare is the pinnacle of literature. His works contain his unique style that has gained fame from all around the world. Shakespeare’s works are still studied today for their deep themes and complex literary devices that were remarkable considering the time period.

4.

This research was quite interesting because it showed how much historical events were happening in almost all facets of human life. There were so many inspirational and historical figures during this time period, ranging from leaders of exploration to pioneers in literature. I barely even scratched the surface as to what was happening at the time with these events and figures described above, much more can be seen and learned from the link above. It seems like there was so much happening during this time period, whereas in the twenty first century it feels like there have certainly been less groundbreaking discovering and figures in the world. This time period also shows how rapidly our race has advanced.

Bibliography:

“Kepler: Johannes Kepler.” Kepler. NASA, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2013.

“Historical/Cultural Timeline – 1600s.” The Museum of Fine Arts. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2013.

“William Shakespeare.” 2013. The Biography Channel website. Feb 04 2013, 10:08.


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Johannes he-was-so-awesome Kepler

Posted on February 3, 2013 by surujdeka
Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630) played a huge role in the scientific revolution of the late 16th and 17th centuries. Initially hired by Brahe to make sense of his observations of planetary movements, Kepler went on to prove that planetary orbits are not circles but ellipses. He investigated further and soon published what are known as Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion, which are:
i. Planets go around the sun in ellipses and the Sun is at one of the foci
ii. A planet covers equal areas in equal time intervals in its orbital path
iii. The more distant a planet from the Sun, the slower its average speed (p2 = a3)

Historical events
1588 – The mighty Spanish armada is defeated by the English navy on the coast of Gravelines, France. This victory confirmed England as a world power and strengthened Queen Elizabeth I’s role as monarch of England
1607 – Jamestown in Virginia becomes the first English settlement on the American mainland. This would pave the way for the English dominance on the continent for more than a century

Historical Figure
A person who lived in the same time as Kepler was the world famous poet and playwright William Shakespeare. He was born on April 23, 1564 and died on April 23, 1616. He wrote numerous plays that have been performed throughout the world and is known to have revolutionized the English language. His plays so widely read because they cover the whole plethora of human emotions and feelings

Reflection
What I liked about learning this context is that it shows how while Kepler was busy trying to figure out the secrets of the universe, the rest of the human populace was more concerned about expanding kingdoms, colonizing new lands and expressing human emotion more fluently in literature. While all of these were important advances in human history, I personally find it a bit amusing how most people were so preoccupied with trivial human issues such as war, conquest and human feelings that they never cared to think on a larger scale and try to answer the kind of questions Kepler was trying to answer. Thinking about the discoveries that Kepler was making kind of belittles the other events that happened during that time!


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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 3, 2013 by hannahladendorf13

Newton: 1642-1727

Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity radically changed our perspective of the Earth and our Moon’s orbit.  Although many scientists before Newton had discredited Aristotle’s theory on a geo-centric universe, the understanding of gravity was the cherry on top to discredit the theory because it made it impossible for that type of universe to exist.   Besides watching apples fall, Newton also stated three laws of motion that control our universe and the objects within it.  With these laws, we are able to establish important aspects of astronomy such as why Earth is able to constantly spin because there is no force of friction acting upon it to stop (first law), why the Moon is able to orbit around the Earth (second law), and lastly how rockets are able to launch into space (third law).

Two important events that happened during Newton’s lifetime were the plague of the late 17th century (round 1660) and in 1660, the Commonwealth of England ends and the monarchy is restored.  These two events are important in regards to Newton’s life as a scientist and as an influential figure in the Enlightenment.  The plague closed many universities and thus Newton returned home to finish his experiments that held his interest instead of returning to school to become a minister.  The end of England’s Commonwealth is groundbreaking because this brought England to its past government.  This was around the time of the beginning of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution that would spur historic events over the rights of men and freedom of citizens.  Robert Hooke who was alive from 1635-1703 made huge advances in fields such as biology and astronomy with the advancement in microscopes and identifying the first living cell.  Also, Hooke created many different instruments that are still used today to discover new things in our universe and on our Earth.

As an avid lover of history, I enjoyed this part of our astronomy course as it makes the lives of the scientists we are studying more personable and more relatable as we are able to understand the circumstances of their work and the effect it had upon their societies.  Although I did not research the older scientists, I thought it was interesting how their contributions to their respective fields influenced future scientists to take risks to either discredit previous theories or to improve them with new knowledge and research.  Each scientist had a passion in their own hearts to improve the way our Earth and universe was explored and researched and sought vigorously to find the truth that essentially they would never be able to fully know or comprehend.


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Copernicus-Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 2, 2013 by a2megal
nicolauscopernicus

Nicholas Copernicus
2/19/1473 – 5/24/1543
Astronomer, mathematician, and teacher
Picture Source

Basic Facts:

Name: Nicholas Copernicus
Birth: February 19, 1473
Death: May 24, 1543

Nicholas Copernicus played a crucial role in the development of modern astronomical theory with his monumental proposal of the Copernican system (also known as the heliocentric system). While the heliocentric model was not his idea originally (this is an idea that originally belonged to Aristarchus), Copernicus took this idea and built upon it by using mathematics and physics, something Aristarchus had not done. His major contribution to astronomy is thus proposing that the Earth rotated not only about the Sun annually, but that the Earth also rotated about it’s own axis once daily. He believed his model to be more than just a mathematical model that allowed us to predict nature and instead believed that the Copernican model was a physical representation of how our solar system was set up (Source: Weisstein).

A few historical events during his life:

1) Protestant Reformation:
One major historical event that happened during Copernicus’ life was the start of the Protestant Reformation with Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses in 1517. This was an outward challenge by the soon to be Protestant faith of some key sections of the Roman Catholic’s church doctrine (“Protestant Reformation”).

2) Magellan circumnavigates the globe:
Another major historical event during Copernicus’ life was the completion of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition. This trip marked the first successful circumnavigation of the globe (Hatch).

A relevant historical figure:

Martin_Luther_by_Lucas_Cranach_1529-200

Martin Luther
12/10/1483-2/18/1546
Leader of the Protestant Reformation
Picture Source

Martin Luther was important because he sparked the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. By challenging some of the primary principles of the Roman Catholic Church with his 95 Theses—which he nailed to the front door of his university’s chapel—Luther created a list of discussion points which circulated among Catholics. These points eventually lead to the splitting of the Catholic and (now) Protestant faiths as these two sects differed on many key points of religious doctrine (“Martin Luther Biography”).

Reflection:

It was interesting to look at the period in which Copernicus was living at the time when he put forth his theories on the mathematically and physically correct model of the universe. First of all, to suggest anything that could be interpreted as a theory contrary to what the Church supported was a brave action in these years. With this knowledge, Copernicus still suggested a model of the solar system that placed the Earth not in the center but instead orbiting around another body—the Sun. Although the Pope and the Church likely did not approve of Copernicus’ theories (much less his book), it is also important to remember that the Catholic Church was undergoing a transitional period at the same time as Copernicus lived, as this is the time when the Catholic and Protestant faiths split.

It was also interesting to remember that at the time when Copernicus was justifying the placement of our planet in the correct orbit in the overall solar system, others on Earth were still attempting to map out the locations of the physical masses on Earth’s surface. One of these missions was Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe. It is amazing that Copernicus was able to provide support for Aristarchus’ theory of Earth’s location in space while a majority of the focus on Earth was in attempting to decipher phenomena in our immediate world. Understanding the historical context in which Copernicus put forth his revolutionary adaptation of the solar system puts the magnitude of his assertions into a broader context.

Other sources of information about Copernicus:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicholas Copernicus


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To Stretch or Not To Stretch

Posted on February 1, 2013 by ibrahim2016

Physics has the distinction of hosting the one of the weirdest concept hierarchies  Don’t get me wrong: physics is beautiful in its intricate connections. But sometimes, especially in the case of modern physics, one feels something like:

WTF_1

So, most of us know about special relativity. A quick summary for the unfortunate: Special relativity establishes the speed of light as constant in all inertial reference frames (that is, for all observers who are either at rest or moving at a constant velocity). One of its implications is that information (in the layman’s case:anything) cannot travel faster than light. This means that as one starts approaching the speed of light, stuff starts happening. Time slows down (according to an outside observer looking at you), your mass increases and weird lighting effects start taking place. I am concerned with length contraction: the shortening of length of objects which are moving at relativistic velocities.

After an unexpected abortion of its hiatus, my conscience prevented me from playing Ace Combat.  And so I was looking for something productive to do when I found this website. According to the article, even though relativistic speeds may cause measurable shortening of length, it most certainly is not observable. Instead the fast travelling object will actually “appear” elongated, while actually being “contracted” at the same time (Schrodinger’s cat, anyone?).  The more I progressed into the article, the more I was like:

WTF_2

But then, I went into scientist mode…

inception_meme__1_…and decided to do a little calculation of my own.

 Imagine there is an object moving towards you at a velocity ‘v’. The stationary length of the object is ‘l’. The distance between you and the farthest part of the object is ‘x’.

rel_exp_1

Just by looking at the image we can see that light from the back of the object takes longer to reach the observer. Mathematically:

t_back_eqnt_front_eqn

We also know that we see an image when photons belonging to the same “plane” reach our eyes. From the equations above, we can see that photons reflected from the front “l/c” seconds later will arrive at the same time (i.e. on the same “plane”) as photons reflected from the back. However in ‘l/c’ seconds, the object will have moved by the distance:

dist_eqn

So the image that will reach our eyes will be like:

rel_exp_2

The apparent length of the object will be:

obs_enlrg_fac_eqn

Let us now assume that the object’s velocity is actually relativistic. So the measured length of the object will shrink to:

rel_len_eqn

And it is this length that will undergo apparent distortion:

final_stretch_eqn

Where l(measured) is the stationary length of the object. The relativistic factor shrinks whereas the observational factor stretches the object. It all comes down to which one of those functions is more powerful. This is a graph of enlargement vs. speed. ’1′ on the y axis represents no distortion.

plot_rel_factors

Back to Ace Combat. ibrahim2016 out.


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Hypatia – Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on January 31, 2013 by drgrundstrom

<note to students: I went farther than you need to because no one can use Hypatia as their historical figure>

Hypatia – 350?? to 415 C.E. pic source Mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, teacher

Hypatia was the first woman KNOWN to contribute to mathematics and science.  Her father, Theon of Alexandria, was a well-known academic and taught his daughter to follow in his footsteps.  Remarkably, she was the head of the Platonist school of philosophy in Alexandria, Egypt.  She was advisor to rulers and sought out by scholars and those who wanted to learn for she was famed for her oratory skills, her sharp mind, and her virtue.  She worked on astronomical bodies and tools (astrolabes especially), on density, and abstract mathematics of the day.  Her greatest contribution to mathematics turned out not to be an original work but one that described the mathematics of conic sections (ellipses, parabolas, hyperbolas) in a manner more easily understood than the original author.  Unfortunately, she is perhaps most well-known for her manner of death: a mob of Christian fanatics kidnapped her, took her to a church, stripped her of clothing and then of her skin using roofing tiles, then burned her mutilated body.  Many historians say this event was really the end of rigorous scholarship in the once great city of Alexandria.

Other sources of interest about Hypatia:

  • Hypatia biography (from University of St. Andrews)
  • Biographies of Women Mathematicians: Hypatia (from Agnes Scott College)
  • Women in History: Hypatia (Humanist Network News Ezine)

Contemporary person:

Contemporary events:

  • Stained glass starts getting used in Roman churches
  • The Sack of Rome by the Visigoths (410 CE) – basically ended the Western Roman Empire (though the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire lasted another 1000 years).  Generally said to be the end of “classical history” and the start of the “Middle Ages”
  • Hadrian’s Wall (separating “barbarian” Scotland and “civilized” (a.k.a. Romanized) Britain) is overrun for pretty much the final time and allowed to fall into ruin (406 CE)
  • In China – Jin Dynasty
  • In India – Gupta Empire (“The Golden Age of India”)
  • In Africa – People start settling the area of the Great Zimbabwe (but don’t build stone structures yet)
  • In Mesoamerica – the Maya and Zapotec were the most well-developed cultures but were mostly city-states with Teotihuacan as the most powerful (too early for Aztec)
  • In America – Southwest: Late Basketmaker II Era ; In Midwest/East: Hopewell Culture
  • In South America – most significant cultures are Moche and Nazca (the ones with the lines) (too early for Inca)

Reflection:

I really enjoyed seeing what was going on in the world of Hypatia’s – the things that affected her spheres and what was going on throughout the globe.  Hypatia’s specific world was one where scholarship was valued but it could really be affected by the politics of the era, especially with fanatic Christians.  It seems once Christians of the day got a bit of power or really just stopped being murdered, they adopted some of the same intolerant tactics.  She just happened to be in the wrong city in the wrong time period but she did get to live a scholarly life and be appreciated by MANY in her rather long (for that period) lifetime.  However, she lived when the mighty Roman Empire was finally defeated – what a strange time!  The Western Empire (i.e., not Byzantine) was floundering anyway but that Visigoth sack of Rome was so disheartening to the people of the day.

Elsewhere in the world, I found that what was going on in the Americas particularly interesting – I always have trouble with putting the ancient American civilizations into context.  We hadn’t gotten anywhere near Incans or Aztecs or Iroquois, but the civilizations that were there were mighty themselves.  I always wonder at what we’ve lost over the years from American cultures (from idiotic conquerers), from Mediterranean cultures (from the fires that happened at the Library of Alexandria and from religious zealotry), from just the passage of time…


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Expansion of the Universe

Posted on January 28, 2013 by JT McJunkins
As Jackson mentioned here, the Universe is expanding fast enough that our observable universe is around 93 billion light years in diameter. This was initially pretty confusing to me, as I thought it impossible to see something 45 billion lightyears … Continue reading →
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