Download or read book Our Celestial Clockwork From Ancient Origins To Modern Astronomy Of The Solar System written by Richard Kerner and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a superposition of two distinct narratives: the first is historical, discussing the evolution of astronomical knowledge since the dawn of civilizations; the second is scientific, conveying mathematical and physical content of each advancement. Great scientists of antiquity, Middle Ages and modern times until the 18th century, are presented along with their discoveries, through short biographies and anecdotes. Special care is taken to explain their achievements using mathematical and physical concepts of their time, with modern perspective added only when ancient methodology is too cumbersome or its language hardly understandable to contemporary readers.The book conveys a lot of astronomical facts and data in a pleasant and accessible manner. Almost all findings and discoveries made in ancient times are followed by simple mathematical exercises using basic knowledge, so that the reader can check the assertions himself. The book contains a lot of inedited illustrations. Geometrical schemes are given extra attention to make the examples clear and understandable. The language is simple and accessible to the young audience.
Download or read book Sun And The Other Stars Of Dante Alighieri The A Cosmographic Journey Through The Divina Commedia written by Sperello Di Serego Alighieri and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2022-01-17 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is the story of a journey across the Universe as it was known in the Middle Ages, a work of science fiction ante litteram. Dante had an encyclopedic mind, no doubt, and his poem is the most widely read book after the Bible. He was a master of the astronomical knowledge of his time, and used astronomy in his work to indicate places, to measure time, and to exemplify beauty. Indeed, in the Convivio, he wrote that science is 'the ultimate perfection of our soul' and 'astronomy — more than any other science — is noble and high for a noble and high subject.'We propose a reading of the Divine Comedy through astronomy with a journey starting from the Earth, proceeding to the Moon, the planets, and to the outermost edges of the Universe. The way in which Dante connects ancient astronomy with modern conceptions of the cosmos will astonish readers more than 700 years later.
Download or read book The Clockwork Universe written by Edward Dolnick and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Edward Dolnick brings to light the true story of one of the most pivotal moments in modern intellectual history—when a group of strange, tormented geniuses invented science as we know it, and remade our understanding of the world. Dolnick’s earth-changing story of Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the birth of modern science is at once an entertaining romp through the annals of academic history, in the vein of Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, and a captivating exploration of a defining time for scientific progress, in the tradition of Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder.
Download or read book Heavenly Clockwork written by Joseph Needham and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1986-09-18 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reissue with a foreword and supplement, of a modern classic published in 1960. The invention of the mechanical clock was one of the most important turning points in the history of science and technology. This study revealed six centuries of mechanical clockwork preceding the first mechanical escapement clocks of the West of about AD 1300. Detailed and fully illustrated accounts of elaborate Chinese clocks are accompanied by a discussion of the social context of the Chinese inventions and an assessment of their possible transmission to medieval Europe. For this revised edition, Dr Joseph Needham has contributed a new foreword on recent research and perceptions. In a supplement John H. Combridge details a modern reconstruction of Su Sung's timekeeping device, which together with textual studies modifies our understanding of this important early technology.
Download or read book The Foundations of Celestial Reckoning written by Christopher Cullen and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Foundations of Celestial Reckoning gives the reader direct access to the foundational documents of the tradition of calculation created by astronomers of the early Chinese empire between the late second century BCE and the third century CE. The paradigm they established was to shape East Asian thought and practice in the field of mathematical astronomy for centuries to come. It was in many ways radically different from better known traditions of astronomy in other parts of the ancient world. This book includes full English translations of the first three systems of mathematical astronomy adopted for use by imperial astronomical officials, together with introductory material explaining the origin and nature of each system, and a general introduction to the work as a whole. The translations, which are accompanied by the original Chinese text, give a consistent rendering of all technical terms, and include detailed explanatory notes. The text in which the second of the three systems is found also includes a unique collection of documents compiled around 178 CE by two experts in the field, one of whom was the author of the third system translated in this book. Using material transcribed from government archives of the two preceding centuries, these scholars carefully document and review controversies and large-scale official debates on astronomical matters up to their own time. Nothing equivalent in detail and clarity has survived from any other ancient culture. The availability of the totality of this material in English opens new perspectives to all historians of pre-modern astronomy.
Download or read book Newton s Clock written by Ivars Peterson and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 1993-07-15 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his critically acclaimed best-sellers The Mathematical Toursist and Islands of Truth, Ivars Peterson took readers to the frontiers of modern mathematics. His new book provides an up-to-date look at one of science's greatest detective stories: the search for order in the workings of the solar system. In the late 1600s, Sir Isaac Newton provided what astronomers had long sought: a seemingly reliable way of calculating planetary orbits and positions. Newton's laws of motion and his coherent, mathematical view of the universe dominated scientific discourse for centuries. At the same time, observers recorded subtle, unexpected movements of the planets and other bodies, suggesting that the solar system is not as placid and predictable as its venerable clockwork image suggests. Today, scientists can go beyond the hand calculations, mathematical tables, and massive observational logs that limited the explorations of Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and others. Using supercomputers to simulate the dynamics of the solar system, modern astronomers are learning more about the motions they observe and uncovering some astonishing examples of chaotic behavior in the heavens. Nonetheless, the long-term stability of the solar system remains a perplexing, unsolved issue, with each step toward its resolution exposing additional uncertainties and deeper mysteries. To show how our view of the solar system has changed from clocklike precision to chaos and complexity, Newton's Clock describes the development of celestial mechanics through the ages--from the star charts of ancient navigators to the seminal discoveries of the 17th centure; from the crucial work of Poincaré to the startling, sometimes controversial findings and theories made possible by modern mathematics and computer simulations. The result makes for entertaining and provocative reading, equal parts science, history, and intellectual adventure.
Download or read book Celestial Treasury written by Marc Lachièze-Rey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-07-16 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, the mysterious dark skies above us have inspired our imaginations in countless ways, influencing our endeavours in science and philosophy, religion, literature and art. Heavenly Treasures is a truly beautiful book showing the richness of astronomical theories and illustrations in Western civilization through the ages, exploring their evolution, and comparing ancient and modern throughout. From Greek verse, mediaeval manuscripts and Victorian poetry to spacecraft photographs and computer-generated star charts, the unprecedented wealth of these portrayals is quite breathtaking.
Download or read book The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi written by George H. van Kooten and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reports the results of the first ever multidisciplinary scientific conference dealing with the Star of Bethlehem, presenting the views of renowned specialists in astronomy, the ancient near-eastern and Greco-Roman worlds, and the history of science and religion.
Download or read book Cosmos written by John North and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-07-15 with total page 903 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive history of humanity's search to find its place within the universe. North charts the history of astronomy and cosmology from the Paleolithic period to the present day.
Download or read book The Construction of the Heavens written by Michael Hoskin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The astronomical observations of William Herschel (1738–1822) made him question the accepted model of the clockwork universe. This volume explains the development of Herschel's thoughts on what he called 'the construction of the heavens' and reprints his principal papers on this subject. The preliminary chapters provide an introduction to Herschel, including his unusual path to astronomy, the discovery of Uranus and his work on the evolution of stellar clusters, which eventually led him to challenge the unchanging Newtonian universe. The second half of the text comprises eight of Herschel's key papers on what we today would call cosmology, representing his progress between 1783 and 1814, fully annotated with historical notes and modern astrophysical explanations. Ideal for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the history of science and in astronomy, this volume explains Herschel's pivotal role in the transformation from the clockwork universe to the 'biological' universe of modern astronomy.
Download or read book Realm of the Universe written by George Ogden Abell and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cosmic Imagery written by John D. Barrow and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2008 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "... a tour through the most influential images in science"--Jacket.
Download or read book The Sun and the Other Stars of Dante Alighieri written by Sperello Di Serego Alighieri and published by . This book was released on 2021-12 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is the story of a journey across the Universe as it was known in the Middle Ages, a work of science fiction ante litteram. Dante had an encyclopedic mind, no doubt, and his poem is the most widely read book after the Bible. He was a master of the astronomical knowledge of his time, and used astronomy in his work to indicate places, to measure time, and to exemplify beauty. Indeed, in the Convivio, he wrote that science is 'the ultimate perfection of our soul' and 'astronomy -- more than any other science -- is noble and high for a noble and high subject.'We propose a reading of the Divine Comedy through astronomy with a journey starting from the Earth, proceeding to the Moon, the planets, and to the outermost edges of the Universe. The way in which Dante connects ancient astronomy with modern conceptions of the cosmos will astonish readers more than 700 years later.
Download or read book Measuring Shadows written by Raz Chen-Morris and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Measuring Shadows, Raz Chen-Morris demonstrates that a close study of Kepler’s Optics is essential to understanding his astronomical work and his scientific epistemology. He explores Kepler’s radical break from scientific and epistemological traditions and shows how the seventeenth-century astronomer posited new ways to view scientific truth and knowledge. Chen-Morris reveals how Kepler’s ideas about the formation of images on the retina and the geometrics of the camera obscura, as well as his astronomical observations, advanced the argument that physical reality could only be described through artificially produced shadows, reflections, and refractions. Breaking from medieval and Renaissance traditions that insisted upon direct sensory perception, Kepler advocated for instruments as mediators between the eye and physical reality, and for mathematical language to describe motion. It was only through this kind of knowledge, he argued, that observation could produce certainty about the heavens. Not only was this conception of visibility crucial to advancing the early modern understanding of vision and the retina, but it affected how people during that period approached and understood the world around them.
Download or read book The Wayward Comet written by Martin Beech and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comets have not only blazed across the celestial vault throughout human history, they have embellished the night sky since the Earth itself formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Comets were among the first-born solid bodies in the solar system, and their frozen nuclei tell of the primordial chemistry and chaos that ultimately resulted in the formation of the planets, the evolution of life and us. For all this, however, comets have long been celestial oddities: they baffled our distant ancestors, and human society continues to marvel and speculate wildly at their appearance even to the present day. Cutting against the perceived constancy of the stars, comets seemingly present themselves at random times and they are often interpreted as harbingers of terrestrial change - both good and ill. How then are we to tame the comet: where do they form, how do they move, and can their appearances be predicted? Such questions have preoccupied astronomers for centuries but comets have only gradually allowed the secrets of their wayward flight to be revealed. In this book I explore the historical struggle to understand not only the place of comets within a societal context, but also the scientific quest to make their paths amenable to mathematical certitude. The latter narrative is the more technical in content, but it took tactile form with the invention, in 1732, of the cometarium, a mechanical device to demonstrate the first two of Kepler's planetary laws. And, this development was later paralleled, in the mid to late 19th century, by the development of various mechanical devices (analog computers) to help obtain solutions to Kepler's Problem - the problem which asks, exactly where in its orbit is a given comet at some specific set time. The telling of the wayward comets story covers the past two millennia of human history, and it takes us from the phenomenological musings of Aristotle, through the exactitude of Newton's gravitational theory and calculus, to the truly incredible study of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, in the modern era.
Download or read book A Brief History of Timekeeping written by Chad Orzel and published by BenBella Books. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2022 NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS WINNER — HISTORY: GENERAL ". . . inherently interesting, unique, and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and academic library Physics of Time & Scientific Measurement history collections, and supplemental curriculum studies lists.” —Midwest Book Review "A wonderful look into understanding and recording time, Orzel’s latest is appropriate for all readers who are curious about those ticks and tocks that mark nearly every aspect of our lives." —Booklist “A thorough, enjoyable exploration of the history and science behind measuring time.” —Foreword Reviews It’s all a matter of time—literally. From the movements of the spheres to the slipperiness of relativity, the story of science unfolds through the fascinating history of humanity’s efforts to keep time. Our modern lives are ruled by clocks and watches, smartphone apps and calendar programs. While our gadgets may be new, however, the drive to measure and master time is anything but—and in A Brief History of Timekeeping, Chad Orzel traces the path from Stonehenge to your smartphone. Predating written language and marching on through human history, the desire for ever-better timekeeping has spurred technological innovation and sparked theories that radically reshaped our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Orzel, a physicist and the bestselling author of Breakfast with Einstein and How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog continues his tradition of demystifying thorny scientific concepts by using the clocks and calendars central to our everyday activities as a jumping-off point to explore the science underlying the ways we keep track of our time. Ancient solstice markers (which still work perfectly 5,000 years later) depend on the basic astrophysics of our solar system; mechanical clocks owe their development to Newtonian physics; and the ultra-precise atomic timekeeping that enables GPS hinges on the predictable oddities of quantum mechanics. Along the way, Orzel visits the delicate negotiations involved in Gregorian calendar reform, the intricate and entirely unique system employed by the Maya, and how the problem of synchronizing clocks at different locations ultimately required us to abandon the idea of time as an absolute and universal quantity. Sharp and engaging, A Brief History of Timekeeping is a story not just about the science of sundials, sandglasses, and mechanical clocks, but also the politics of calendars and time zones, the philosophy of measurement, and the nature of space and time itself. For those interested in science, technology, or history, or anyone who’s ever wondered about the instruments that divide our days into moments: the time you spend reading this book may fly, and it is certain to be well spent.
Download or read book The Human Odyssey A Hidden History written by Krsanna Duran and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Departure from the Garden represents the maiden flight of humanity from its earliest beginning with ancestors from the stars. The ancestor races evolved from the same universal code from which the oldest human species grew, many of whom have now left human evolution behind them to climb to even greater states within the universal code. The most ancient emblem on Earth observed in modern UFO contact guides the search for Native America's ancestors, those who returned to Mexico in 1991 in the most extensive UFO activity in modern history. Traces of Native America's ancestors, the ancient astronauts, have often been dismissed as too impossibly ancient to believe. And it is the factor of what can be perceived as reality or truth that is followed in this search for humanity through the manifestation of mind and the shamanic perspective in North America's oldest pyramids. Recent scientific discovery of super continents and new excavations at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey are examined in light of traditional lore from the remote corners of the Earth. The search for The People Of Life, those who opened the tree of life to repopulate Native America, leads through Earth's oldest cultures -- Egypt, Greece, India, Tibet and Mu, the motherland.
