De ce este pmntul rotund?

The eclipse began just after moonrise over Seattle. I positioned myself to capture this 'Double Eclipse' - initial Earth shadow and Columbia Tower high rise eclipsing the moon.

Photo details: Nikon Coolpix 5700 1/3sec, F4.1, ISO 100, 6:09PM PDT

I went to Kas, a small Mediterranean town about 190 km southwest of Antalya, Turkey, where I observed the eclipse from the very point that I had observed the lunar eclipse of 9th November last

year. #1: A few minutes after the end of totality, the Moon was about to set behind Toros (Taurus) Mountains. 06:53 GMT+3 #2: I used a 17 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for this 90-second exposure showing the Moon in the western sky. The tube of my telescope can also be seen at the bottom, as I piggybacked the camera on it.

Monday morning just before a fully lit Strawberry Moon dropped behind theAbsaroka Mountain Range near Cody, Wyoming, USA, the shadow of the Earth got in the way. Image credit: Mack H. Frost

A partial lunar eclipse is seen over the skies of Belgrade June 15, 2011. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

A partial lunar eclipse is seen over the village of Zejtun, lit up for its parish church feast of Saint Catherine, in the south of Malta June 15, 2011. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A lunar eclipse is seen over the Atomium in Brussels, early Thursday, June 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert).

The earth casts its shadow over the moon during a total lunar eclipse seen from behind the Pantheon of Freedom sculpture, featuring a torch, at Three Powers Square in downtown Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday June 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Top 10 Ways to Know the Earth is Not Flat

A few months ago I released an experiment video explaining how Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth using the shadow of sticks. The method was performed almost two millenia ago, and produced quite accurate results (considering the equipment used). But it was far from being the only (or first) method to understand our planets shape. Humanity has known the Earth to be round for a few mil lenia and Ive been meaning to refine that video and show more of these methods of how we figured out the world is not flat. Ive had a few ideas on how to do that, but recently got an interesting incentive, when Phil Plait (The Bad Astronomer) wrote about a recently published BBC article about The Flat Earth society. Phil claims its ridiculous to even bother rebutting the flat earth society and I tend to agree. But the history of our species intellectual pursuit is important and interesting, and its very much well worth writing about. You dont need to denounce all science and knowledge and believe in a kooky conspiracy theory to enjoy some historical factoids about humanitys quest for space. Though I have researched this subject, I am quite certain there will be much more to be said about it feel free to add more in the comments. If all goes well, this might actually be a good post to refer to whenever anyone wants to discuss a bit of ancient science and the source of cosmological thought. On we go to the top 10 ways to know the Earth is unequivocally, absolutely, positively, 100% not flat:

(1) The Moon

Now that humanity knows quite positively that the Moon is not a piece of cheese or a playful god, the phenomena that accompany it (from its monthly cycles to lunar eclipses) are well-explained. It was quite a mystery to the ancient Greeks, though, and in their quest for knowledge, they came up with a few insightful observations that helped humanity figure out the shape of our planet. Aristotle (who made quite a lot of observations about the spherical nature of the Earth) noticed that during lunar eclipses (when the Earths orbit places it directly between the Sun and the Moon, creating a shadow in the process), the shadow on the Moons surface is round. This shadow is the Earths, and its a great clue on the spherical shape of the Earth. Since the earth is rotating (see the Foucault Pendulum experiment for a definite proof, if you are doubtful), the consistent oval-shadow it produces in each and every lunar eclipse proves that the earth is not only round but spherical absolutely, utterly, beyond a shadow of a doubt not flat. Refer to the following image from Wikipedia for more details on what happens during a lunar eclipse:

Click for the Original

(2) Ships and the Horizon

If youve been next to a port lately, or just strolled down a beach and stared off vacantly into the horizon, you might have, perhaps, noticed a very interesting phenomenon: approaching ships do not just appear out of the horizon (like they should have if the world was flat), but rather emerge from beneath the sea. But you say ships do not submerge and rise up again as they approach our view (except in Pirates of the Caribbean, but we are hereby assuming that was a fictitious movie). The reason ships appear as if they emerge from the waves is because the world is not flat: its round.

Imagine an ant walking along the surface of an orange, into your field of view. If you look at the orange head on, you will see the ants body slowly rising up from the horizon, because of the curvature of the Orange. If you would do that experiment with a long road, the effect would have changed: The ant would have slowly materialized into view, depending on how sharp your vision is.

(3) Varying Star Constellations

This observation was originally made by Aristotle (384-322 BCE), who declared the Earth was round judging from the different constellations one sees while moving away from the equator.

After returning from a trip to Egypt, Aristotle noted that there are stars seen in Egypt and [...] Cyprus which are not seen in the northerly regions. This phenomenon can only be explained with a round surface, and Aristotle continued and claimed that the sphere of the Earth is of no great size, for otherwise the effect of so slight a change of place would not be quickly apparent. (De caelo, 298a2-10) The farther you go from the equator, the farther the known constellations go towards the horizon, and are replaced by different stars. This would not have happened if the world was flat:

(4) Shadows and Sticks

If you stick a stick in the [sticky] ground, it will produce a shadow. The shadow moves as time passes (which is the principle for ancient Shadow Clocks). If the world had been flat, then two sticks in different locations would produce the same shadow:

But they dont. This is because the earth is round, and not flat:

Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE) used this principle to calculate the circumference of the Earth quite accurately. To see this demonstrated, refer to my experiment video about Eratosthenes and the circumference of the earth The Earths curvature is tasty!.

(5) Seeing Farther from Higher

Standing in a flat plateau, you look ahead of you towards the horizon. You strain your eyes, then take out your favorite binoculars and stare through them, as far as your eyes (with the help of the binocular lenses) can see. Then, you climb up the closest tree the higher the better, just be careful not to drop those binoculars and break their lenses. You then look again, strain your eyes, stare through the binoculars out to the horizon. The higher up you are the farther you will see. Usually, we tend to relate this to Earthly obstacles, like the fact we have houses or other trees obstructing our vision on the ground, and climbing upwards we have a clear view, but

thats not the true reason. Even if you would have a completely clear plateau with no obstacles between you and the horizon, you would see much farther from greater height than you would on the ground. This phenomena is caused by the curvature of the Earth as well, and would not happen if the Earth was flat:

(6) Ride a Plane

If youve ever taken a trip out of the country, specifically long-destination trips, you could notice two interesting facts about planes and the Earth:

Planes can travel in a relatively straight line a very long time and not fall off any edges. They can also, theoretically (and some do, though with stops along the way), circle the earth. Correction (Courtesy of Klaynos, from scienceforums.net): Apparently, planes can circle the Earth without

stopping!

If you look out the window on a trans-Atlantic flight, you can, most of the times, see the curvature of the earth in the horizon. The best view of the curvature used to be on the Concorde, but that planes long gone. I cant wait seeing the pictures from the new plane by Virgin actually is from a distance. (A picture of the curved horizon from a Concorde plane can be seen here).

Galactic the horizon should look absolutely curved, as it

(7) Look at Other Planets

The Earth is different from other planets, that much is true. After all, we have life, and we havent found any other planets with life (yet). However, there are certain characteristics all planets have, and it will be quite logical to assume that if all planets behave a certain way, or show certain characteristics specifically if those planets are in different places or were created under different circumstances our planet is the same. In other words: If so many planets that were created in different locations and under different circumstances show the same property, its likely that our own planet has the same property as well. All of our observations show planets are spherical (and since we know how theyre created, its also obvious why they are taking this shape). Unless we have a very good reason to think otherwise (which we dont), our planet is very likely the same. In 1610, Galileo Galilei observed the moons of Jupiter rotating around it (click here to see a beautiful video reconstruction of his observations). He described them as small planets orbiting a larger planet a description (and observation) that was very difficult for the church to accept as it followed a geocentric model where everything was supposed to revolve around the Earth. This observation also showed that the planets (Jupiter, Neptune, and later Venus was observed too) are all spherical, and all orbit the sun.

A flat planet (ours or any other planet) would be such an incredible observation that it would pretty much go against everything we know about how planets form and behave. It would not only change everything we know about planet formation, but also about star formation (as our sun would have to behave quite differently to accustom a flat earth theory), what we know of speeds and movements in space (like planets orbits, and the effects of gravity, etc). In short, we dont just suspect that our planet is spherical. We know it.

(8) The Existence of Timezones

The time in New York, at the moment these words are written, is 12:00pm. The sun is in the middle of the sky (though its hard to see with the current cloud c overage). In Beijing, where Michael Phelps is likely getting ready for yet another gold medal, its 12:00am, midnight, and the sun is nowhere to be found. In Adelaide, Australia, it is 1:30am. More than 13 hours ahead. There, the sunset is long gone so much so, that its soon going to rise up again in the beginning of a new day. Heres a list showing what time it is around the world when it is 12:00pm in New York city.

This can only be explained if the world is round, and rotating around its own axis. At a certain point when the sun is shining on one part of the Earth, the opposite side is dark, and vise versa. That allows for time differences and timezones, specifically ones that are larger than 12 hours. Another point concerning timezones, the sun and flat/spherical Earth: If the sun was a spotlight (very directionally located so that light only shines on a specific location) and the world was flat, we would have seen the sun even if it didnt shine on top of us (as you can see in the drawing below). The same way you can see the light coming out of a spotlight on a stage in the theater, even though you the crowd are in the dark. The only way to create two distinctly separate timezones, where there is complete darkness in one while theres light in the other, is if the world is spherical.

(9) The Center of Gravity

Theres an interesting fact about mass: it attracts things to it. The force of attraction (gravity) between two objects depends on their mass and the distance between them. Simply said, gravity will pull toward the center of mass of the objects. To find the center of mass, you have to examine the object. Consider a sphere. Since a sphere has a consistent shape, no matter where on it you stand, you have exactly the same amount of sphere under you. Imagine an ant (perhaps the same one from the previous point) walking

around on a crystal ball. Assuming the crystal ball is polished, the ants only indication of movement would be the fact its moving its feet. The scenery (and shape of the surface) would not change at all.

Consider a flat plane. The center of mass of a flat plane is in its center (more or less if you want to be more accurate, feel free to do the entire [shriek] integration [shriek] process), and the force of gravity will pull a person toward the middle of the plain. That means that if you stand on the edge of the plane, gravity will be pulling you toward the middle, not straight down like you usually experience. I am quite positive that even for Australians an apple falls downwards, but if you have your doubts, I urge you to try it out just make sure its nothing that can break or hurt you. Just in case gravity is consistent after all.

Further reading about the center of mass and about distribution of mass can be found here. And if you are brave enough to handle some equations (not involving integration), you can learn some more about Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation.

(10) Images from Space

In the past 60 years of the space exploration era of humanitys history, weve launched satellites, probes and people to space. Some of them got back, some of them still float through the solar system (and almost beyond it) and transmit amazing images over to our receivers on Earth. Heres a list of some of the pictures weve seen from space throughout the years: October 24, 1946: A group of scientists in the New Mexico desert saw the first grainy photo of the Earth. The photograph was taken from a height of 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) by a 35-millimeter motion picture camera riding on a V-2 missile.

August 14, 1959: First crude photo of the Earth from the Explorer VI satellite. The photo showed a sun-lit area of the Pacific ocean and cloud coverage. It was taken from about 17,000 miles (27,350 kilometers) above the surface. (Image Courtesy of the NASA GRIN Website)

June 5, 1966: Astronaut Eugene Cernan took this amazing picture of Gemini 9 and the Earth during his EVA (Extravehicular Activity). The spacecraft itself and Cernans umbilical (the cord that keeps him connected to the spacecrafts systems) are visible on top of a beautiful background of the Earth. (Image Courtesy of the NASA GRIN Website) August 23, 1966: First view of Earth from the Moon. This picture was taken by Lunar Orbiter I when the spacecraft was on its 16th orbit and was just about to pass behind the Moon. (Image Courtesy of theNASA GRIN Website)

December 29, 1966: A spectacular view of the rising Earth from the Moon, taken by the crew of Apollo 8 after coming out from the other side of the Moon, approximately 239,000 miles (384,000 kilometers) from Earth. (Image Courtesy of the NASA GRIN Website)

December 1, 1968: Photo of Earth from Apollo 8. This photograph was taken by an 80-mm lense, at a point very close to the Moon. (Image Courtesy of the NASA GRIN Website) More pictures from the NASA Missions throughout the years can be found at NASA GRIN Website:http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/index.html

How to measure the distance from the Earth to the Moon

The ancient Greeks did it, and you can too. Find out how some easily observable facts allow you to measure the approximate distance from the Earth to the Moon. One of the hardest parts of calculating distances in space is the difficulty finding reference points. The size or distance of objects on Earth can be hard to estimate, but they occupy a landscape which can be measured, providing a jumping-off point. The moon gives up a few clues it's clearly closer than the Sun or the stars, but it's still drifting in a nothingness that's hard to measure. Do you know how to measure the diameter of the earth? No? Then you're less advanced than they were in 230 BC. You're basically a Read The distance to the moon was measured, or at least approximated, over 2000 years ago, by our old friends, the Greeks. They'd already figured out the circumference and consequently the diameter of the earth, providing the one absolute number on which to base the rest. After that, it's geometry. Many people have held up a round object and let it block the Sun. Most of the time, it's not an exact fit. A slice of Sun peeks through, or a little of the surrounding area is blocked out. When a round object is held up in front of the Sun, it creates a cone of darkness that tapers down to one point. At that one point, the object blocks out all of the Sun, and nothing else. That point, on Earth, is 108 times the diameter of the object. A beach ball will create a shadow 108 beach balls long, which at the farthest point will block out the Sun completely. A penny will create a shadow 108 pennies long. The Earth will create a shadow 108 Earth diameters long.

The Moon passes within that shadow during a lunar eclipse. So no matter how big or small the Moon is, it had to pass within 108 Earth diameters of the Earth. In fact, duringlunar eclipses, it was observed that the Moon was imperfectly blocked by the shadow of the Earth. The shadow was roughly 2.5 times the width of the Moon. But is it a big, far Moon, or a small, close Moon? This would have been impossible to decide if it weren't for a happy coincidence. The Moon itself is a size and distance that blocks out the Sun. Like the beach ball and the penny, it creates its own shadow, and that shadow terminates on Earth. More importantly, that shadow ends in the same angle that the shadow of the Earth does, making them different-sized versions of the same triangle.

The triangles work out like this. The largest is one Earth diameter wide at the base (8,000 miles) and 108 Earth diameters tall (864,000 miles). The smallest is one Moon diameter wide and one Moon orbit tall. The medium sized one is 2.5 Moon diameters wide and, since the triangles are proportionate, 2.5 Moon orbits tall. Add the height of the medium-sized one to the small one and you get 3.5 Moon orbits, which is the height of the largest triangle.

SEXPAND In other words, the distance to the Moon is 864,000 divided by 3.5, or around 247,000 miles. According to Universe Today, the distance to the Moon is 239,000 miles, proving once again that the Greeks were smart.

How do you measure the moon from the distance? Answer 1: The moon was first measured by a Greek astronomer named Aristarchus of Samos (310-230 BC). He measured the diameter of the Moon during a lunar eclipse, when the full Moon was passing through the shadow of the Earth. Aristarchus timed how long the Moon took to travel through Earth's shadow and compared this result with the time required for the Moon to move a distance equal to its diameter. He found that the shadow was about 8/3 the diameter of the Moon. Aristarchus knew that it takes for the Moon 28 days to go around the Earth, which means 360 degrees. Like Aristachus method, there are some more that measure the Moon in a way relative to the Earth; this means that measuring the Earth, it is possible to measure the Moon. On the other hand, in 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts put a reflector on the Moon (on the Sea of Tranquility), in order to run experiments that make possible the measurements of the Moons rotation. This project is named Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment and has been running since 25 years ago. The laser reflector consists of 100 fused silica halfcubes, called corner cubes, mounted in a 46-centimeter square aluminum panel. Each corner cube is 3.8 centimeters in diameter. The lunar ranging involves sending a laser beam through an optical telescope; the beam enters the telescope where the eye piece would be, and the transmitted beam is expanded to become the diameter of the main mirror, and then bounced off the surface toward the reflector on the Moon. Once the laser beam hits a reflector, scientists at the ranging observatories use extremely sensitive filtering and amplification equipment to detect the return signal, which is far too weak to be seen with the human eye. Even under good atmospheric viewing conditions, only one photon is received every few seconds. From the ranging experiments, scientists know that the average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon is 385,000 kilometers.

Trundle wheels are great for measuring long distances of 1 to 500 meters or more depending upon how patient you are and how far you are willing to walk. You can purchase trundle wheels from scientific and educational supply companies, but they tend to be fairly expensive. Of course, a purchased trundle wheel is probably going to be more accurate than the one you can make. However, making one is much more fun.

Making a Trundle Wheel For Measuring Longer Distances

Materials:
The materials you actually use may be different, but be sure to adjust your design to accommodate these differences. * All wood dimensions are shown as T x W x L (thickness x width x length)

1 - 1/4 inch (or 6 mm.) plywood at least 32 cms. (13 inches) square 1 - 1 x 2 x 30 inches (2.5 x 5 x 75 cm.) piece of wood (actual dimensions = 3/4 x 1.5 x 30 inches or 18 mm. x 13 mm. x 75 cm.) 1 - 1 x 2 x 18 inches (2.5 x 5 x 45 cm.) piece of wood (any piece of scrap wood close to this -to use for scribing a circle) 4 - 1/4 x 3/4 x 2 inches (6 mm. x 18 mm. x 5 cm.) pieces of wood 2 - 1/16 x 7/16 x 2 inches (1.5 - 2 mm. x 10 - 11 mm. x 2.5 cm.) piece of firm, flexible plastic 1 - 1/4 x 2.5 inch bolt (6 x 37 mm.) 6 - washers to fit on bolt 3 - lock nuts (to fit on bolt) -- OR 3 nuts with 3 lock washers 2 - 1 inch (2.5 cm.) screws (used for scribing a circle) carpenters glue sand paper (optional) - all weather, clear polyurethane or paint (primer and outdoor paint) (recommended) large piece of cardboard that you can cut out several test wheels

Equipment:

jig saw (table top or electric hand) or circle cutting saw hand cross-cut saw electric hand drill 1/4 inch drill bit C-clamps half or full circle protractor wrenches fine tip, permanent magic marker tape measure or ruler awl, nail, or pencil for scribing razor blade knife or scissors for cutting test wheels out of cardboard

Design and Construction:

For accuracy, it is important to try making and testing several wheels out of cardboard.

Use a small drill bit to drill the first hole, then use the 1/4 inch drill bit for the final hole.

Make these marks now, when it is easier to work on the wheel without the axle (bolt) installed. (See last comment under step 4.) You also may want to add more measurement marks to indicate each centimeter.

The clickers will make a clicking sound on each rotation, so that you can count off each meter. Before making the clickers, measure the thicknesses of the nuts and washers. The plastic on the two clickers should overlap slightly, but should not interfere with the movement of the wheel. The measurements shown here are based on the washers being 1/16 inch and the nuts 1/4 inch. Make sure that the clickers are glued to the wheel and handle at a position where they will overlap and make a clicking sound. The C-clamps can be used to glue the clicker onto the handle. If you do not have a C-clamp that will reach the clicker on the wheel, lie the wheel on a table or floor and place heavy objects on top of each side of the clicker and leave until the glue dries. If you plan on putting on polyurethane or painting your trundle wheel, do so before putting it together. You may want to put on your measurement marks before putting using polyurethane. However, if you paint, you should put on the measurement marks after painting.

Be sure to position the lock nuts (or nuts and lock washers) against both sides of the wheel and against both sides of the handle. Make sure you use regular smooth washers in the middle. DO NOT tighten the end lock nut (or not and lock washer) on the end of the bolt too much. Tighten enough so that the wheel does not wobble, but turns easily.

Potential Uses:

Measurements for mapping tasks. Measurements for large scale models (e.g., solar system, etc.) Measurements of circumferences, perimeters, etc. (e.g., large trees, poles, buildings, etc.)

Aristarchus of Samos

1 Heliocentrism 2 Distance to the Sun (lunar dichotomy) 3 The Great Year and an estimate of the length of the month 4 Precession 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

Aristarchus of Samos (/rstrks/; , Aristarkhos; c. 310 c. 230 BC) was an ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician who presented the first known model that placed the Sun at the center of the known universe with the Earth revolving around it (see Solar system). He was influenced by Philolaus of Croton, but he identified the "central fire" with the Sun, and put the other planets in [1] their correct order of distance around the Sun. His astronomical ideas were often rejected in favor of the geocentrictheories of Aristotle and Ptolemy.

Heliocentrism
Though the original text has been lost, a reference in Archimedes' book The Sand Reckoner (Archimedis Syracusani Arenarius & Dimensio Circuli) describes another work by Aristarchus in which he advanced the heliocentric model as an alternative hypothesis. Archimedes wrote: You (King Gelon) are aware the 'universe' is the name given by most astronomers to the sphere the center of which is the center of the Earth, while its radius is equal to the straight line between the center of the Sun and the center of the Earth. This is the common account as you have heard from astronomers. But Aristarchus has brought out a book consisting of certain hypotheses, wherein it appears, as a consequence of the assumptions made, that the universe is many times greater than the 'universe' just mentioned. His hypotheses are that the fixed stars and the Sun remain unmoved, that the Earth revolves about the Sun on the circumference of a circle, the Sun lying in the middle of the Floor, and that the sphere of the fixed stars, situated about the same center as the Sun, is so great that the circle in which he supposes the Earth to revolve bears such a proportion to the distance of the fixed stars as the center of the sphere bears to its surface. The Sand Reckoner
[2]

Aristarchus thus believed the stars to be very far away, and that in consequence there was no observable parallax, that is, a movement of the stars relative to each other as the Earth moves around the Sun. The stars are much farther away than was generally assumed in ancient times; and since stellar parallax is only detectable with telescopes, his speculation although accurate was unprovable at the time. The geocentric model was consistent with planetary parallax and was assumed to be the reason why no stellar parallax was observed. Rejection of the heliocentric view was common, as the following passage from Plutarch suggests (On the Apparent Face in the Orb of the Moon):

Cleanthes (a contemporary of Aristarchus and head of the Stoics) thought it was the duty of the Greeks to indict Aristarchus on the charge of impiety for putting in motion the hearthof the universe ... supposing the heaven to remain at rest and the earth to revolve in an oblique circle, while it rotates, at the same time, about its own axis. [3] Tassoul, Concise History of Solar and Stellar Physics The only other astronomer of antiquity who is known by name and who is known to have supported Aristarchus' heliocentric model was Seleucus of Seleucia, a Hellenistic astronomer who lived a century after Aristarchus. The heliocentric theory was successfully revived nearly 1800 years later by Copernicus, after which Johannes Kepler described planetary motions with greater accuracy (Kepler's laws) and Isaac Newton gave the theoretical explanation based on laws of gravitational attraction and dynamics.

Distance to the Sun (lunar dichotomy)[edit]

Aristarchus's 3rd-century BC calculations on the relative sizes of (from left) the Sun, Earth and Moon, from a 10thcentury AD Greek copy

Main article: Aristarchus On the Sizes and Distances The only surviving work usually attributed to Aristarchus, On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, is based on a geocentric world view. It has historically been read as stating that the angle subtended by the Sun's diameter is 2 degrees, but Archimedes states in The Sand Reckoner that Aristarchus had a value of degree, which is much closer to the actual average value of 32' or 0.53 degrees. The discrepancy may come from a misinterpretation of what unit of measure was meant by a certain Greek term in Aristarchus' text. Aristarchus claimed that at half moon (first or last quarter moon), the angle between Sun and Moon was 87.Possibly he proposed 87 as a lower bound since gauging the lunar terminator's deviation from linearity to 1 accuracy is beyond the unaided human ocular limit (that limit being about 3 accuracy). Aristarchus is known to have also studied light and vision. Using correct geometry, but the insufficiently accurate 87 datum, Aristarchus concluded that the Sun was between 18 and 20 times farther away than the Moon. (The true value of this angle is close to 89 50', and the Sun's distance is actually about 400 times the Moon's.) The implicit false solar parallax of slightly under 3 was used by astronomers up to and including Tycho Brahe, ca. AD 1600. Aristarchus

pointed out that the Moon and Sun have nearly equal apparent angular sizes and therefore their diameters must be in proportion to their distances from Earth, so that the diameter of the Sun was between 18 and 20 times larger than the diameter of the Moon.

The Great Year and an estimate of the length of the month[edit]

Mentioned by Archimedes and by others as the first to propose a heliocentric "universe", Aristarchus also proposed a "Great Year" of 4868 solar years, equalling exactly 270 saroi, each of 18Callippic years plus 10 degrees. (Syntaxis, book 4, chapter 2.) Its empirical foundation was the 4267 month eclipse cycle, cited by Ptolemy as source of the "Babylonian" month, which was good to a fraction of a second (1 part in several million). It is found on cuneiform tablets from shortly before 200 BC, though Ptolemy did not attribute its origin to Babylon. (Due to near integral returns in lunar and solar anomaly eclipses 4267 months apart exceptionally never deviated by more than an hour from a mean of 126007 days plus 1 hour, the value given by Ptolemy at op. cit. Thus, estimation of the length of the month was ensured to have relative accuracy of 1 part in millions.) Embedded in the Great Year was a length of the month agreeing with the Babylonian value to 1 part in tens of millions, decades before Babylon is known to have used it. There are indications that Babylon's month was exactly that of Aristarchus, which would suggest that one party obtained it from the other or from a common source. Aristarchus's lunar conception represents an advance of science in several respects. Previous estimates of the length of the month were in error by 114 seconds (Meton, 432 BC) and 22 seconds (Callippus, 330 BC).

Precession
The Vatican library has preserved two ancient manuscripts with estimates of the length of the year. The only ancient scientist listed for two different values is Aristarchus. It is now suspected that these are among the earliest surviving examples of continued fraction expressions. The most obvious interpretations can be computed from the manuscript numbers. The results are years of 365 1/4 + 1/152 days, and 365 1/4 15/4868 days, representing the sidereal year and the civil, supposedly tropical year. Both denominators can be related to Aristarchus, whose summer solstice was 152 years after Meton's and whose Great Year was 4868 years. The difference between the sidereal and tropical years is due to precession. The former value is accurate within a few seconds. The latter is erroneous by several minutes. Both are close to the values later used by Hipparchus and Ptolemy, and the precession indicated is almost precisely 1 degree per century, a value which is too low. 1 degree per century precession was used by all later astronomers until the Arabs. The correct value in Aristarchus's time was about 1.38 degrees per century.

Aristarchus
The first of the Greek philosphers and mathematicians to unravel the celestial plan and announce the discovery was Aristarchus of the isle of Samos. Others before him assumed that the Earth is a sphere and that it moves, but he was the first to

formulate plainly the heliocentric theory, the scheme which has the Sun in the center. Aristarchus lived from about the year 310 before the present era to about 230, and among the geometers he succeeded Euclid and preceded Archimedes. In -288 or 287 he followed Theophrastus as the head of the Peripatetic School established by Aristotle. Aristarchus only extant treatise is On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon. In it he calculated the diameter of the Sun as about seven times the diameter of the Earth, thus estimating the Suns volume as about 300 times the volume of the Earth (the actual diameter of the Sun is about 300 times the diameter of the Earth; the solar volume is equal to 1,300,000 volumes of the Earth). In this work of Aristarchus there is nothing indicating his heliocentric theory. It was probably this his realization of the superior mass of the Sun that brought him to his discovery. Or should a celestial body three hundred times larger than the Earth revolve around it each day? Aristarchus book on the planetary system with the Sun in the center did not survive, and we know of it only through references to its content, chiefly by Archimedes. Archimedes, who was twenty-five years his junior, wrote: Aristarchus brought out a book consisting of certain hypotheses. . . . His hypotheses are that the fixed stars and the Sun remain unmoved, and that the Earth revolves about the Sun in the circumference of a circle, the Sun lying in the middle of the orbit. He also added that according to Aristarchus who is in contradiction to the common account of astronomers, the universe is many times larger than generally assumed by astronomers, and the fixed stars are at an enormous distance from the Sun and its planets. Aristarchus regarded the Sun as one of the fixed stars, the closest to the Earth. Aristarchus sets the Sun among the fixed stars and holds that the Earth moves round the suns circle (i.e., ecliptic) referred another author, centuries later. As Archimedes said, the view of Aristarchus conflicted with the common teaching of the astronomers, and he also quoted it only to put it aside disapprovingly. One of the contemporaries of Aristarchus, Cleanthes, wrote a treatise Against Aristarchus. Whatever his scientific argument may have been, he accused Aristarchus of an act of impiety. Plutarch wrote in his book Of the Face in the Disc of the Moon (De facie in orbe lunae) that Cleanthes thought it was the duty of the Greeks to indict Aristarchus of Samos on the charge of impiety for putting in motion the Hearth of the Universe, this being the effect of his attempt to save the phenomena by supposing heaven to remain at rest and the Earth to revolve in an oblique circle, while it rotates, at the same time, about its own axis. (4) We do not know whether there was any actual court action and verdict; however, we know that a verdict of judges, even if unanimous, could not make the Sun a

satellite of the Earth. Not even a scientific tribunal can do this, not even if it is presided over by Archimedes and the most illustrious men of the generation sit as judges. The spokesman of the scholarly world was Dercyllides, who announced that we must assert the Earth, the Hearth of the house of the Gods, according to Plato, to remain fixed, and the planets with the whole embracing heaven to move and reject the view of those who brought to rest the things which move and set in motion the things which by their nature and position are unmoved, such a supposition being contrary to the theories of mathematicians.(5) Aristarchus had no followers in his generation, nor in the next generation. About a century after Aristarchus, Seleucus, a Chaldean of Seleucia on the Tigris, who lived and wrote about the year 150 before the present era, adopted the teaching of Aristarchus. Hipparchus was a contemporary of Seleucus. Hipparchus is thought to be the greatest astronomer of antiquity, and even today there are worshippers of his among the menbers of the faculties. But he rejected the heliocentric system of Aristarchus, and this he did not on a religious ground, but on a scientific one. A system with the Sun in the center of circular orbits could not account for the peculiarities in the visible motions of the planets, but the theory of epicycles could, and this theory had the Earth immobile in the center of the universe. Thus the religious dogma and the mathematical analysis, both, condemned Aristarchus and his teaching that the Earth circles around the Sun. References 1. Archimedes, ed. Heiberg, vol. II, p. 244 (Arenarius I. 4-7); The Works of Archimedes, ed. Heath, pp. 221-222. See Heath, Aristarchus of Samos, (Oxford University Press, 1913) p. 302. 2. Aetius (ii.24.8) Dox. Graec. p. 355.19 Bekker. See Heath, Aristarchus of Samos, p. 305. 3. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Famous Philosophers, mentions such a tract among the works of Cleanthes. Cf. Th. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos (Oxford, 1913), p. 304. 4. De facie in orbe lunae ch. 6, pp. 922F-923A; cf. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos, p. 304. 5. Theon of Smyrna (ed. Hiller) p. 200, 7-12. Cf. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos, p. 304.