Models of the Universe
According to the early Greeks
Persons that proposed their views of the early universe
Two classification of how the universe might look like according to the
early Greeks
Their contributions in order to come up with
the more accurate model of the universe
Introduction:
The early humans relied on the skies as their principal means of telling the time,
of navigation, and knowing when to start planting rice.
3,000 years ago, the Egyptians established a 365- day calendar based on the track of the stars Sirius. The track
also coincide with the annual flooding of the Nile river.
The Babylonians and the Assyrian also invented similar calendars to aid them in determining when to sow and reap
crops.
Humans have come up with several models in an effort to understand the universe. Before the invention of the
telescope, they had to rely on their senses for a picture of the Universe with much philosophical and religious
symbolism.
Thales of Miletus proposed that the Earth is a disk floating on water.
Anixamander, also from Miletus, suggested that Earth is a cylinder and that its surface is curved.
Classification of the models:
As civilization flourished, several models were proposed. These models can be grouped under two categories:
Geocentric Model Heliocentric
The geocentric model considers
Modelmodel assumes the sun to
The heliocentric
be the center of the Universe.
Earth as the center of the Universe.
Pythagoras Aristarchus
Plato Copernicus
Eudoxus Galileo
Aristotle Kepler
Apollonius
Ptolemy
Pyrocentric Model – suggests that a “fire” is the center of the universe
- suggested by Philolaus.
Tychonic Model – a compromise between heliocentric and geocentric model.
- it was proposed by Tyco Brahe.
Geocentric Models:
• Pythagorean
Model
Pythagoras
He was acknowledge as the first to assert that the Earth is round, and that the heavenly bodies moves
in circles.
In his model, Earth is at rest at the center of the Universe, and everything rotates around it.
He considered the motions of the planets were mathematically related to musical sounds and numbers.
The music of Spheres
Anaxagoras, a follower of Pythagoras, was credited with having determined the relative position of
the sun, the moon, and the Earth during solar eclipses and lunar eclipses.
• Plato
A Greek philosopher and a Teacher, He adopted the Pythagorean view of
the motion of the heavenly bodies as combinations of circular motion
about Earth.
He assumed that all motions in the universe are perfectly circular and that all heavenly
bodies are ethereal or perfect.
Most of the time, planets move from west to east as predicted. But occasionally, they
backtrack for a while; that is they move westward before resuming their eastward
motion. “Retrograde
Plato’s challenged: “ What circular motions, uniformMotion”
and perfectly regular, are to be
admitted as hypotheses so that it might possible to save the appearance presented by
the planets.”?
This challenge is known in the history of astronomy as “Plato’s Saving the
Appearances”.
• Eudoxus’ Model
Eudoxus was the first to “save the appearances”
that Plato referred to, using a series of 27 concentric
spheres on which the sun, the moon, and the planets
moved in perfect circular motion.
The breakdown of 27 spheres is as follows:
One sphere for fixed stars
Three spheres for the sun
Three spheres for the moon
And four spheres for each of the five
known planets at that time.
(Mars, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter)
Note that he did not assign any sphere for Earth
because in his model Earth is fixed.
The last two spheres produced the backward motions of the
planets. He explained the rotation of the 27 spheres using the
notion of “intelligences”.
• Aristotle’s Model
The Aristotelian model also used the 27 celestial spheres of
Eudoxus.
He added 27 buffering spheres between celestial spheres of
Eudoxus and an outermost sphere that was the domain of what he
called the “Prime Mover”.
The Prime Mover rotated rotated this outermost sphere with
constant angular speed, causing the other sphere to rotate as
well.
According to him the order of the heavenly bodies in the
universe was (from Earth out):
(Earth, moon, Mercury, Venus, sun, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, fixed stars, and the firmament of
the Prime Mover)
The Roman Catholic Church adopted this
idea in Medieval times: The Prime Mover
was considered as God, and the sphere of
firmament as heaven.
• Aristotle’s Model
Aristotle divided the universe into two realms; terrestrial and celestial.
with the orbit of the moon as the boundary. Below the moon’s orbit was the terrestrial realm.
Terrestrial objects was composed of four primordial elements in this sequence ; earth,
water, air, and fire.
Celestial objects was consist of the fifth element called aether or ether.
He considered terrestrial matter to be ephemeral and undergoing decay, while ether was
unchanging and perpetual.
This realm was composed of four primordial elements in this sequence ; earth, water,
air, and fire.
• Aristotle’s Model
According to him, the Earth is a sphere.
He based this proposition on several observations:
It is only at the surface of a sphere that all
objects fall straight down.
The view of the constellations changes as it
travels from north to south.
The shadow of Earth on the moon during a lunar
eclipse was round.
Aristotle’s mode; was based on the
three types of motion
Natural
Violent
Alteration
• Ptolemy’s Model
Apollonius, known in his time as the Great
Geometer, introduced the idea of an epicycle to
explain planetary motion.
An epicycle is a circle on which planet moves.
The center of the small circle in turns moves
around Earth along a bigger circular path called
deferent.
Around 140 A.D., Ptolemy, devised a
more complex epicyclic model.
• Ptolemy’s Model
He defined a point on the other side of the deferent’s
center and called it the equant.
The equant and the center of Earth is equidistant from the
center of the deferent
Ptolemy’s model, each planet has its
own epicycle and deferent. His model
survived for more than 14 years
Heliocentric Models:
Before heliocentric model came about, a Greek astronomer Philolaus,
proposed a pyrocentric model of the universe.
According to him, neither Earth nor the
