Finding our Place in the Solar System: The Scientific Story of the Copernican Revolution
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 3/28/2019
EAN 9781107182295, ISBN10: 1107182298
Hardcover, 392 pages, 25.4 x 17.8 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
Finding our Place in the Solar System gives a detailed account of how the Earth was displaced from its traditional position at the center of the universe to be recognized as one of several planets orbiting the Sun under the influence of a universal gravitational force. The transition from the ancient geocentric worldview to a modern understanding of planetary motion, often called the Copernican Revolution, is one of the great intellectual achievements of humankind. This book provides a deep yet accessible explanation of the scientific disputes over our place in the solar system and the work of the great scientists who helped settle them. Readers will come away knowing not just that the Earth orbits the Sun, but why we believe that it does so. The Copernican Revolution also provides an excellent case study of what science is and how it works.
Preface
1. Introduction
mysterious skies
2. Two spheres
modeling the heavens and the Earth
3. Wanderers
the Moon and the planets
4. An Earth-centered cosmos
astronomy and cosmology from Eudoxus to Regiomontanus
5. Moving the Earth
the revolutions of Copernicus
6. Instruments of reform
Tycho's restoration of observational astronomy
7. Physical causes
Kepler's new astronomy
8. Seeing beyond Aristotle
Galileo's controversies
9. The system of the world
Newton's universal physics
10. Confirming Copernicus
evidence for Earth's motions
Appendix A. Mathematical details
Notes
References
Index.