The Models of The Universe

At the end of the lesson, you will be able to
compare and contrast the models of the

universe by Eudoxus, Aristotle, Aristarchus,
Ptolemy, and Copernicus.
Eudoxus of Cnidus (born c. 395 390 B.C.), a Greek
astronomer and mathematician, was the first to
propose a model of the universe based on geometry.
His model composed of 27 concentric spheres with Earth
as the center.
The Sun, the Moon, the planets, and the fixed stars have
spheres.
Each sphere is attached to a larger sphere through a pole.
The rotation of the spheres on their poles once every 24
hours accounts for the daily rotation of the heavens.
It is unclear whether Eudoxus regarded these spheres
as physical entities or just mathematical constructions.
Aristotle (born c. 384 B.C.), a Greek philosopher and
astronomer, considered the model proposed by
Eudoxus, but he considered these spheres as physical
entities.
He thought that these spheres were filled with the
divine and eternal aether that caused the spheres to
move.
He introduced the Prime Mover, as the cause of the
movement of the spheres.
His model composed of 56 spheres that guided the
motion of the Sun, the Moon, and five known planets.
As the spheres move, they maintained the same
distance from the Earth. Also, they moved at constant
speeds.
Aristarchus of Samos (born c. 310 B.C.), a Greek
astronomer and mathematician, was the first to
hypothesize that the Sun is the center of the
universe.
He visualized that the Moon orbits around a
spherical Earth which then revolves around the
Sun.
He believed that the stars are very far away from
the Earth as evidenced by the absence of stellar
parallax that is, the stars do not change
positions relative to each other as the Earth
revolves around the Sun.
Through geometrical models and mathematical
computations, he concluded that
the Sun is 20 times farther from the Earth than the
Moon is to the Earth;
the Earth is about three times larger than the Moon;
and
the Sun is 20 times larger than the Moon.
He also reasoned out that smaller spheres orbit
around larger ones. Thus, the Moon orbits
around the Earth, and the Earth orbits around the
Sun.
The Sun, Moon, stars, and planets were believed
to move in a uniform circular motion the
perfect motion assigned to celestial bodies by
the ancient Greeks.
However, observations showed otherwise.
The paths of the celestial bodies are not circular,
and they vary in distances.
Babylonians even showed that some planets
exhibit a retrograde motion a motion opposite
to that of other planets.
To explain imperfect motions of heavenly
bodies, Claudius Ptolemy (born c. 90 A.D.), a
Greco-Egyptian astronomer and mathematician,
proposed his own geocentric (Earth-centered)
model of the universe.
He accounted for the apparent motions of the
planets around the Earth by assuming that each
planet moved around a sphere called an epicycle.
The center of the epicycle then moved on a larger
sphere called a deferent.
1. A planet moves counter-
clockwise around the
epicycle.
2. The epicycles center
also moves counter-
clockwise around the
center of the deferent
(indicated by the + sign
in the image).
3. The center of the
epicycle moves around
the equant with a
uniform speed.
4. The Earth is not exactly at the
center of the deferent, or it is
eccentric (off the center). This
explains why, as observed from
the Earth, the Sun or a planet
moves slowest when it is
farthest from the Earth and
moves fastest when it is nearest
the Earth.
5. The motion of the planet can be
described by points 1-7 in the
figure below. At point 4, the
planet moves in a retrograde
(clockwise) motion. The planet
is brightest at this point
because it is closest to the
Earth.
In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, a Renaissance
mathematician and astronomer born in
Poland, ended the geocentric astronomy era
by publishing his work On the Revolutions of
the Heavenly Spheres wherein he explained
that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of
the universe.
In his work, he reiterated the ancient Greek
concept that the motion of spherical heavenly
bodies is uniform, eternal, and circular.
He then reasoned that because Earth is
spherical, then its motion is circular. He added
that the Earth has three different motions:
daily rotation on its axis,
yearly motion around the Sun, and the
precession, or change in orientation, of its axis every
26 000 years.
He also proposed that the fixed
stars are immovable.
Their apparent movement is a
consequence of the Earths
rotation.
These stars are at immeasurable
distances from the Earth, so there is
no observable parallax.
By placing the Sun at the center of the
universe and the orbits of Mercury and
Venus in between the Sun and the
Earth, Copernicus model was able to
account for the changes in the
appearances of these planets and their
retrograde motions.
The need for epicycles in explaining
motions was eliminated.
Key Points
Eudoxus, Aristotles, and Ptolemys
models have the Earth as the center of
the universe while Aristarchus and
Copernicus models have the Sun as
the center.
Eudoxus model has 27 concentric
spheres for the Sun, Moon, planets,
and the stars whose common center is
the Earth.
Aristotles model of the universe is
composed of 56 spheres guiding the
motion of Sun, Moon and the five
known planets.
Key Points
Aristarchus said that smaller celestial
bodies must orbit the larger ones and
since the Sun is much larger than the
Earth, then the Earth must orbit
around the Sun.
Ptolemaic model introduced the
concepts of epicycle, deferent, and
equant to explain the observed
imperfect motions of the planets.
Copernicus model recognized that the
Earth rotates on its axis, revolves
around the Sun, and undergoes
precession.

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At the end of the lesson, you will be able to

compare and contrast the models of the

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