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Earth being the center of the universe makes a lot of sense in a naive way, it doesn't feel like the earth is moving. Sat in this chair, I feel as though I am
by robonerd 5y ago
Earth being the center of the universe makes a lot of sense in a naive way, it doesn't feel like the earth is moving. Sat in this chair, I feel as though I am at rest, and when I look at the sky long enough, I see that the stars are moving.
And even with Copernicus's insight, he was still missing some key details which made it harder to believe he had the general idea right. Copernicus modeled the solar system using circular orbits, not elliptical orbits. To fit the observed data to this model, he needed epicycles, just as the geocentric model required.
- TheBlight 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_of_Samos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_of_Samos We even have record of someone reasoning this out of simple observations nearly 2000 years prior. This suggests to me it was known (at least by intellectuals) for a very very long time.
- cryptonector 5y agoWhat's funny about Copernicus not understanding that the planets orbits were elliptical is that it must have been clear that the moon's orbit around Earth is. The Antikythera mechanism models an elliptical orbit for it, so it must have been obvious. Now, it's not obvious that the moon's orbit around the Earth is like that of the planets around the Sun, but it doesn't take much imagination to think that orbits are similar in nature regardless of what is being orbited.