Chapter 1: Our Picture of The Universe

Aristotle’s Arguments Against a Flat Earth:

Aristotle gave two good arguments to suggest that the earth is spherical and not flat.
 During lunar eclipse, the earth’s shadow on moon was always round, if the earth
was flat it would have given an elliptical shadow on the moon.
 The North star appeared on the horizon (lower) when viewed from south but on
north pole it was directly above and appeared higher.
 When a ship is approaching, we first see it’s sails and later its hull.
Ptolemy’s Model of The Universe:
Ptolemy adopted Greek idea that Earth was the center of the universe and created a
model which involved the earth in the center and was surrounded by 8 spheres
consisting the moon, the sun, the five planets, and the outmost sphere was for the fixed
stars which never changed position.
Flaw: Couldn’t explain why moon sometimes follows a path that brings it twice as close
to earth then the predicted range.
This model was adopted by the Christian church as the model of the universe as it was
mostly according to the spiritual belief that the earth is the center of the universe.
Copernican Theory:
A Polish priest Nicholas Copernicus suggested that the Sun was the center of the
universe and the planets revolved around it. It was taken seriously a year later by
Galileo Galilei and Johanne Kepler however it did not give the observed measurement.
Kepler changed the theory so that the planets revolved in elliptical orbits rather then
circular ones, this resulted in correct measurements of the orbits.
Galileo’s Observation:
Galileo observed that each planet revolves around the Sun, but each planet has its own
moons that revolve around it and in complicated paths around the earth.
Newton’s Predictions:
Newton gave his essential Law of Gravitation which explained the elliptical paths of the
sun and the stars orbit.
Newton also believed in an infinite static universe as an explanation to the stars that
never changed their position. This was contradicted by many people. But the main
argument against it was realized much later was that in an infinite universe nearly every
point can be considered as a center as every point has infinitely many stars around it,
thus every point in the universe should attracts the stars towards itself and collapse. It
was realized much later that instead of an infinitely static universe an infinite universe
that is ever expanding made more sense.
The Olber’s Paradox: German scientist Heinrich Olbers gave a plausible counter
argument to an infinitely static universe. He suggested that if the universe is infinitely
large, there should be stars everywhere we see hence the night sky should be brighter
then the sun, however it isn’t. An argument was given that the light is dimmed by
absorbing matter but that way the matter would gradually heat up and shine bright red.
Hence the only explanation that could be given was that the universe wasn’t infinitely
large and that it was a finite universe created at a finite time. This way the light from the
distant stars might not have reached us yet and that the absorbing matter might not
have fully heated up as of now.
The Beginning of The Universe:
According to Muslim/Christian/Jewish beliefs the universe as we know it started at a
finite time in the past and did not exist forever. This argument was also given later in a
book named The City of God that stated as the society keeps on progressing with each
passing day, there was a time civilization did not exist and hence there must also have
been a time when the universe did not exist and might have progressed slowly after its
creation. This idea was opposed by Aristotle and Greeks as it was against their divine
intervention. They went as far as to suggest the reason civilization had a beginning was
because every time the society was wiped out by floods or tsunamis and destroyed all
the advancements hence the civilization begins again.
 Critique of Pure Reason: Critique of pure reason is the work of a philosopher
Immanuel Kant. He gave contradictions to both beliefs. He suggested that if the
universe had existed forever then there should be an infinite amount of time
before any event which is absurd and if it didn’t exist forever then there must be
an infinite amount of time before the creation of the universe. This question was
answered by St. Augustine, the author of the “City of God” as: Time did not exist
before the creation of the universe.
 The Big Bang Theory: Edwin Hubble observed that whenever you look at
distant galaxies they are moving away from eachother hence there might have
been a time when all these particles were together at an infinitesimally dense
point, and that the universe started after an event called as the big bang. These
elements are still expanding from eachother. This argument stated that there was
time even before creation of the universe but since at this infinitesimally small
and infinitesimally dense point all laws of physics we know now would break
down thus time before the event of the big bang does not bring any major
changes in our current universe. We can say that time before that can be ignored
because it had no consequences on our current universe.
Chapter 2: Space and Time