Ancient Greek Physics and Astronomy

Greeks started with what they can see. They divided the
cosmos into two domains, celestial and terrestrial.
 Terrestrial Domain
In the inner terrestrial domain,
four elements - earth, water,
air, and fire - composed the
material things on Earth.

Terrestrial motion refers to

the movements that the Earth
makes.
Celestial Domain

A fifth element, aether, composed the moon, planets, and

stars, embedded in concentric spheres in the celestial domain.
 ”
The classical Greeks in their philosophy
regarded three types of terrestrial
motion:
• Motion with respect to quality
• Motion with respect to quantity
• Motion with respect to place/position

“
 Motion with respect to place

Locomotion is applicable to things that change their place

only when they do not have the power to come to a stand, and
to the things that do not move themselves locally.
Motion with respect to place
Locomotion : movement from one point to another.
Is this motion with respect to place?
Is this motion with respect to place?
Motion with respect to quantity
If the motion in the complete magnitude is increased, motion in
the contrary direction is decreased.
Is this motion with respect to quantity?
Motion with respect to quality
It refers to the passive quality in virtue of which a thing is said to
be acted on or to be incapable to be acted on.
Is this motion with respect to quality?
Gazing up, you get the impression that the sky is a great hollow
dome with you at the center, and the stars are an equal distance
from you on the surface of the dome.
Sigma Octantis or Polaris Australis is the current South Star.

The stars appear to be attached to an imaginary spherical

surface, celestial sphere, and is concentric to Earth.
Celestial Sphere
an imaginary projection of all astronomical bodies upon an
imaginary sphere and is concentric to Earth
Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees.

Celestial Sphere Parts

• North celestial pole
• South celestial pole
• Celestial equator
• Zenith
• Horizon
 Zenith: the point straight overhead on the celestial sphere.
What you see if you lie on your back and look straight up.

We can only see half of the celestial sphere at one time.

The horizon or skyline is the apparent line that separates
earth from sky.
 ”
How do celestial bodies move
in the celestial sphere?
• Diurnal motion
• Annual motion
• Precession of the equinoxes

“
What is the Sun’s apparent daily motion in the sky?
As you observe the Sun for a day at the same time and
place on Earth, notice how it moves relative to the Earth’s
local horizon.
What is diurnal motion?

It is the apparent motion of celestial objects around Earth, or

more precisely around the two celestial poles, over the course
of one day.
 What causes diurnal motion?

Earth’s west-to-east
rotation around its axis
(prograde direction) causes
celestial bodies to have an
apparent east-to-west or
westward motion (counter-
clockwise direction)

The circular path that celestial bodies take to complete the

diurnal motion is called diurnal circle.
Why does the Sun rise in the east and
set in the west?

Earth rotates toward the east or eastward

making the Sun to rise in the east and make
its way westward across the sky.
Riding on Different Parts
of Spinning Earth
At the Earth’s equator
The stars move straight up from
the east side of the horizon and
set straight down on the west
side.
 Suppose you are facing east, the
planet carries you eastward as it
turns, so whatever lies beyond that
eastern horizon eventually comes
up the horizon and you see it.

You can observe that the sun rises

in the east and sets in the west.

Video by Sher Pauline Palola

Riding on Different Parts
of Spinning Earth
At the Earth’s North Pole
The north celestial pole is
directly overhead, at your zenith
and all stars that are visible at all
(that is, all stars in the Northern
Celestial Hemisphere) are
circumpolar. The stars during
the course of the night would all
circle around the celestial pole.
Riding on Different Parts
of Spinning Earth
Between Pole and Equator
Constellations are always above
the horizon day and night. This
part of the sky is called the
circumpolar zone. Stars rise
and set at an angle to the
horizon.
Have you ever noticed that the position of stars (and
constellations) in the sky changes throughout the year?

Objects in the sky move relative to the background stars.

Different stars and constellations appear on the local horizon
throughout the year (12 months).
Among the 88 modern constellations, can you name those
you have observed on your local horizon?

Constellation
any of certain groupings of stars that were imagined at least by
those who named them to form conspicuous configurations
of objects or creatures in the sky
Have you seen the Great Bear in the northern night sky?
Filipino Ethnoastronomy
Dr. Dante Ambrosio, “Father
of Philippine Ethnoastronomy,”
published his journal article
BALATIK: Katutubong Bituin
ng mga Pilipino in 2005.

Balatik (Orion) and Moroporo

(Pleiades) stood out throughout
the archipelago. These marked
the seasons of hunting, planting,
and sailing of our ancestors.
What is annual motion?

It is the apparent motion of the stars as observed from Earth

as a direct effect of the Earth’s revolution around the Sun.
The celestial equator intersects another circle, the ecliptic.

After a year, when Earth has

completed one trip around the
Sun, the Sun will appear to have
completed one revolution along
the ecliptic.
Constellations on the Ecliptic
Have you ever observed that every year, the equal length of
day and night happens twice during spring and autumn?
Equinox: equal length of day and night

Sun at the closest distance

from the celestial equator.

Vernal equinox happens

every March 21 while
autumnal equinox occurs
every September 23.
Equinoxes move westward along the ecliptic relative to the
fixed stars as Earth wobbles.
Earth’s precession was historically
called precession of equinoxes
Earth rotates (white arrows) once a
day around its axis (red); this axis
itself rotates slowly (white circle).
The positions of the south and
north celestial poles appear to
move in circles against the space-
fixed backdrop of stars, completing
one circuit in approximately 26,000
years.
Precession of Equinoxes

Precession is the cyclic

wobbling in the orientation
of Earth’s axis of rotation.

At present, Earth’s North Pole

points to Polaris. Eventually, it
will point to another star, Vega,
because of precession.
Have you ever wondered how the Greeks knew
that Earth is spherical?
Around 500 B.C., most
Greeks believed that the
Earth was round, not flat.
It was Pythagoras and his
pupils who were the first to
propose a spherical Earth.
 Anaxagoras
He supported Pythagoras’ proposal through his observations
of the shadows that the Earth cast on the Moon during a lunar
eclipse.

Drawn not to scale

What happens during a lunar eclipse?

A time-lapse created by Latter phases of the partial lunar

Thomas Knoblauch of the lunar eclipse on 17 July 2019 taken
eclipse on March 3, 2007 from Gloucestershire, UK
The Moon often passes through two regions of Earth's shadow:
an outer penumbra, where direct sunlight is dimmed, and an
inner umbra, where indirect and much dimmer sunlight refracted
by Earth's atmosphere shines on the Moon, leaving a reddish
color. This can be seen in different exposures of a partial lunar
eclipse.

lunar_eclipse_oct_8_2014_Minneapolis_4_46am Minnesota, USA

Shadow of a flat Earth casted on the Moon’s surface.
Shape of the Sun and the Moon

Aristotle argued that if the Moon and the Sun were

both spherical, then the Earth was also spherical.
A view of the Sun
How will your shadow be casted on a flat Earth?
The angles of shadow vary
in such a way that it
indicates a spherical surface.
 The most significant observation that needs to be explained is
the retrograde motion of the planets.

The apparent motion of the planet

Mars in August and September 2003.
What is a retrograde motion?
It is the occasional backwards motion of the planets (Mercury,
Mars) as seen in Earth’s sky.
Models or Descriptions of the Universe
 Models or Descriptions of the Universe

Eudoxus Aristotle Aristarchus

Models or Descriptions of the Universe

Ptolemy Copernicus
Eudoxus
Eudoxus’ model placed
a spherical Earth at the
centre of the universe.
1 for the fixed stars
3 each for the Sun and
Moon
4 each for the 5 planets
Animation depicting Eudoxus’ model of retrograde planetary
motion.

Spherical Lemniscate
The two innermost homocentric
spheres are represented as rings,
each turning with the same period
but in opposite directions, moving
the planet along a figure-eight
shape or hippopede shown by
the blue curve.
As explained at https://www.thehistoryofphysics.org
 Aristotle: finite, eternal, and geocentric universe

• He believed the universe

is finite in space but exists
eternally in time.
• Objects in space are
unchanging and move in
perfect circles, which he
considered to be the
perfect shape.
• Moon
• Sun
• Planets
• Fixed stars

the motion of the celestial objects can be traced to a

Prime Mover that because of its basic movement, all
other circles move accordingly.
Ptolemy suggested that planets
like Mars move in circles as they
orbit the Earth, where the circles
are called epicycles.

Ptolemy developed Aristotle’s geocentric theory. He knew

that the planets don’t appear to orbit in perfect circles
around the Earth.
Ptolemy and Epicycles
 Retrograde Motion in Ptolemaic view
The backward motion of the
planets is a literal retrograde
motion.

Each planet moved on a small circle called epicycle, that

moved on a larger circle called deferent.
Aristarchus of Samos presented
the first known model that placed
the Sun at the center of the known
universe with the Earth revolving
around it.

He put the other planets in their correct order of distance

around the Sun.
Model Center
Copernican Sun
Heliocentric
Orbits
All planets including
Earth orbits Sun, only
Moon orbits Earth.
Stars
Outermost celestial
sphere, fixed

Copernicus and Heliocentric Universe

 How did the Copernican view explain the
retrograde motion?
• retrograde motion is apparent
due to difference in the orbital
speeds of the planets
• when viewed from moving Earth,
the other planets would appear
to undergo retrograde motion
because of the combined
motions of Earth and other
planets.
Tychonic Model of Universe
 Model Center Orbits Stars
Ptolemaic Earth All other celestial Outermost
Geocentric bodies orbit Earth. celestial
sphere, fixed
Tychonic Sun Moon and Sun Outermost
Geo- orbits Earth, all celestial
heliocentric other planets orbit sphere, fixed
Sun
Copernican Sun All planets Outermost
Heliocentric including Earth celestial
orbits Sun, only sphere, fixed
Moon orbits Earth.
Galileo’s Observation vs. Ptolemaic Model
 Moons of Jupiter
1610: Galileo observed with his telescope what he
described at the time as three fixed stars, totally
invisible by their smallness, all close to Jupiter.
Observations on subsequent nights showed that the positions
of these "stars" relative to Jupiter were changing in a way that
would have been inexplicable if they had really been fixed
stars.
Within a few days, he concluded that they were orbiting
Jupiter: he had discovered three of Jupiter's four largest
moons. He discovered the fourth on 13 January.
Astronomers renamed them as Galilean satellites..
Phases of Venus
From September 1610, Galileo observed
that Venus exhibited a full set of phases
similar to that of the Moon.
Lunar Phase
a full set of phases of the Moon.
The evolution of the apparent diameter and phases of Venus.

Planetary Phase
- a certain portion of a
planet’s area that reflects
sunlight as viewed from a
given vantage point, as well
as the period of time during
which it occurs.
Phases of Venus
 Three Laws of Planetary Motion
• Johannes Kepler
worked with data
painstakingly collected
by Tycho Brahe which
was before the time of
telescope to develop
three laws of planetary
motion describing the
motion of the planets
around the Sun.
Johannes Kepler Tycho Brahe
Kepler is saying that the new “perfect” shape
must be an ellipse.
 1st Law: Law of Orbits
“The orbit of a planet follows an ellipse with the Sun
at one focus.”

In any case, a circular path is an ellipse with the foci

merging as the center of the circle.
As the Sun is one of the foci, it is clear that the Planet-Sun distance will
be changing. But, the planet covers up for the increase in the distance
by moving faster when it is closer to the Sun.
 2ND Law: Law of Equal Areas
“The imaginary line joining the Sun and a planet moves
over equal areas in equal time intervals.”

This indicates that planets do not move at a uniform speed.

3RD Law: Law of Harmonies

“The square of the period of revolution of a

planet around the Sun is proportional to
the cube of the average distance from the
Sun.
In symbols:
P 2 = a3
P = time period of evolution (in years)
a = average distance from Sun (in AU)
What will be the length of the year if the Earth is at
half of its present distance from the Sun?

Semi-major axis or the average distance of the planet from

the Sun.
Given:
Since 1 AU is the average distance of the Earth from the Sun,
therefore a = 1 AU but the problem asks for the half of the present
distance of the Earth from the Sun, therefore the given must be
a = 0.5 AU
Since 1 year is equal to a complete revolution of Earth around the
Sun, therefore P = 1 yr BUT the year is unknown given the P.
Formula Solution
P2 = a3 P2 = 0.53 P = 0.35 years
P2 = 0.125
P = 0.125
Practice
Ceres, the largest asteroid in the main asteroid belt,
orbits the Sun at an average distance of 2.77 AU.
What is Ceres orbital period P in years?

P = time period of evolution (in years)

a = average distance from Sun (in AU)
Given: Formula
a = 2.77 AU P2 = a3
P=?
Solution
P2 = 2.773 P = 21.25
P2 = 21.25 P = 4.61 years
If Saturn is, on average, 9 times farther from the Sun
than the Earth is, how long is its year in terms of
Earth years?
P = time period of evolution (in years)
a = average distance from Sun (in AU)
Mars takes 1.88 years to complete one orbit around
the Sun. What is its average distance from the Sun?

P = time period of evolution (in years)

a = average distance from Sun (in AU)