2
Chapter 1. The Shape and Motions of The Earth
1.1. The Shape of the Earth
Early Greeks (C. 1600 B.C.) believed that the Earth was disklike, floating onwater, with the dome of heavens above it. They also hypothesized that therewas an underworld comparable in scope and complexity to the heavens.
Pythagoras (C. 500 B.C.) is thought to have been the first to assert that theEarth is round in shape and that all heavenly bodies move in circles.
The Pythagoreans believed that the sphere is the perfect shape and that the gods utilized the perfect form to create the Earth.
Plato (428 - 347 B.C.) and his followers believed that all motions in theuniverse are perfectly circular and that all astronomical bodies are spherical.
Plato's fundamental percept was that what we see of the material world is only an imperfect representation of ideal creation. The implicationwas that we can learn more about the universe by reason than byobservation.
Aristotle (c. 384 - 322 B.C., a student of Plato) was the first to adopt physicallaws and used them to demonstrate that both the universe and the Earth arespherical.
Aristotle taught that circular motions are the only natural motions and that the center of the Earth is the center of the universe -- geocentric point of view
.
Aristotle had three ways of proving that the Earth was spherical:
i.
Only at the surface of a sphere do all objects seek the center byfalling straight down. According to Aristotle, falling objects followtheir natural inclination to reach the center of the universe.
ii.
The view of the constellations changes as one moves to the north orsouth poles.
iii.
During lunar eclipses, it can be seen that the shadow of the Earth iscurved.
Aristotle is a bit different from Plato in that he mixed reason (theory)with observation
.
Today there are various direct evidences that show the Earth is almostspherical. Pictures of the Earth taken from stratospheric balloons, ionosphericrockets and satellites show a spherical image of the Earth.
A very good theoretical evidence concerning the shape of the Earth can beobtained from Newton's law of universal gravitation:
Leave a Comment