On The Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (On the Shoulders of Giants)
by Nicolaus Copernicus, Stephen Hawking
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nicolaus Copernicus, Stephen HawkingEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-11-30
ISBN: 0762420219
Number of pages: 408
Publisher: Running Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780762420216
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of On The Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (On the Shoulders of Giants)
Book Review: Planetary distances is "the chief point of all"
Summary: 5 Stars
Copernicus puts the sun in the center of the universe. This is a great achievement not on metaphysical or philosophical grounds but rather because it provides new quantitative information about the universe, namely planetary distances. Suppose the earth is at the center and we have created a model for how the planets move with epicycles and stuff, as Ptolemy did. Such a model can give no information about planetary distances, because we could scale the orbit of Saturn, say, to make it twice as big and it would still look exactly the same seen from earth. But suppose now that we have a similar model but with the sun at the center, which is what Copernicus provides. The (relative) planetary distances are now determined, because if we scaled the orbit of Saturn then it would look the same seen from the sun but different seen from earth. So with the earth in the center we cannot determine planetary distances because we are the center of scaling, but with the sun in the center we would notice scaling and thus the planetary distances are locked, or, as Copernicus puts it, "this correlation binds together so closely the order and the magnitudes of all the planets and of their spheres or orbital circles and the heavens themselves that nothing can be shifted around in any part of them without disrupting the remaining parts and the universe as a whole". Thus he can claim triumphantly that earlier astronomers "have not been able to discover or to infer the chief point of all, i.e., the form of the world and the certain commensurability of its parts. But they are in exactly the same fix as someone taking from different places hands, feet, head, and the other limbs---shaped very beautifully but not with reference to one body and without correspondence to one another---so that such parts made up a monster rather than a man." (I'm using the translation from Goldoni's excellent article in the Mathematical Intelligencer.) Other benefits of the Copernican system include explanations of the following. Retrograde motion, including: retrogression coincides with opposition and maximum luminosity (for superior planets); retrogression is more frequent the further the planets is from us; the retrograde arc is greater the closer the planet is to us. Bounded elongation of inferior planets. Peculiarities of Ptolemy, including: Ptolemy's planets all have a solar component (viz., to explain bounded elongation or why retrogression coincides with opposition) but the moon does not; periods not constant as seen from the earth.
Summary of On The Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (On the Shoulders of Giants)
New to our On the Shoulders of Giants series, this groundbreaking work of astronomy proposed a heliocentric universe in which planets orbited the sun-daring to challenge the Ptolemaic ideal of the earth as the center of the universe. This essay by Copernicus (1473-1543), revolutionized the way we look at the earth's placement in the universe, and paved the way for many great scientists, including Galileo and Isaac Newton, whose theories stemmed from this model. Featuring a biography of Copernicus and an accessible, enlightening introduction, both written by the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres provides a fascinating look at the theories which shaped our modern understanding of astronomy and physics.Black-and-white illustrations.
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