Ptolemy's Solar Hypotheses

Loading...

Sign in or sign up now!
Alert icon
Upgrade to the latest Flash Player for improved playback performance. Upgrade now or more info.
9,743
Loading...
Alert icon
Sign in or sign up now!
Alert icon

Uploaded by on Sep 15, 2009

An illustration of Ptolemy's two hypotheses presented in Book III, Chapter 3 of the Almagest.

Music: Múm - Green Grass Of Tunnel

Video by Noah Litvin
http://noahlitvin.com

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (7)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • I understand this model has been adopted by the GOP on the science plank of their platform. (just kidding, but it's a beautiful animation of Ptolemy's attempt). Too bad that Aristarchus got buried by Ptolemy's model until Copernicus! Bravo on the animation!

  • Damn, considering they had a working explanation and no telescope for 3,000 years pretty much blows me away. Correct or not, ancient astronomers were pretty legit.

  • Did they never consider an elliptical orbit possibility? From what I understand Copernicus only said the sun was the center because he couldn't explain that the moon didn't get bigger when it go closer to the earth.

  • Trying to explain what we now know to be elliptical motion using only circles, god's perfect shape. As measurements became more precise epicycles upon epicycles had to be created. When Copernicus made the first simplification and went back to the plain circle, it was criticized because while computations (for all the planets, not just the sun and Earth) were much easier, it was less accurate than Ptolomy's system. When Kepler changes circles to ellipses, both ease and accuracy came together.

  • ptolemy, you so silleh

  • HI! May I know the source for the music used in your video? Thanks!

Loading...

Alert icon
0 / 00Unsaved Playlist Return to active list
    1. Your queue is empty. Add videos to your queue using this button:
      or sign in to load a different list.
    Loading...Loading...Saving...
    • Clear all videos from this list
    • Learn more