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Conceptual simplicity. Newtonian celestial mechanics does not make any new predictions that Copernican mechanics does not (at least before space travel is viabl
by yummyfajitas 12y ago
Conceptual simplicity. Newtonian celestial mechanics does not make any new predictions that Copernican mechanics does not (at least before space travel is viable), but it sure is much nicer to work with.
- phaemon 12y agoYes it does. Even assuming you meant "Keplarian mechanics" (circular orbits give horrible predictions for planetary movement), Newton's theory of Universal Gravitation provided much more accurate predictions of the Moon's movements. Not the movements of Mercury though. We had to wait for Einstein for that.
- yummyfajitas 12y agoSorry I'm completely forgetting the name of the theory I'm thinking of. It involves planets moving on circles on harmonic spheres (as opposed to sjmply following great circles) and accounts fairly well for celestial motion. Its now mostly forgotten due to being a complete tangent on the way to Newtonian mechanics, but it was pretty clever.
- ahh 12y agoEpicycles.