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Caldius Ptolemy's Life And Accomplishments

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Caldius Ptolemy was a Greco-Roman astrologer, mathematician, astronomer, and geographer born in 100 AD, Alexandria Egypt and died in 168 AD, Alexandria Egypt. His name is actually derived from Greek (Polemeios) meaning “aggressive, or warlike”.

Ptolemy is best known for proposing the Geocentric System of astronomy which just says that the Earth was the center of the universe and the other planets along with the Sun, revolved around Earth. Soon after that he was proven wrong by a Polish astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus, who brought up the Heliocentric System, which states that Sun is the center of the universe and the other planets along with Earth revolved around it.

In about 150 CE, Ptolemy finished a book called Almagest which was also called “The Mathematical Collection”. In this book he tries to explain “motions of the heavenly bodies” through mathematical terms. He also talks about his theory, being that the Earth is at the center of the universe while the Sun and other planets revolved around it. How much of this book is original is hard to tell just because as time goes on …show more content…

He also contributed to trigonometry in a big way, for example: his table of the lengths of cords in a circle is the earliest still-going table of a trigonometric table.

Towards the end of his life he turned to the study of visual perception in Optica which only occurs in a mutilated medieval Latin translation of an arabic translation.

Ptolemy contributed to the Scientific Revolution in a kind of big way. Thanks to his theory of the geocentric system he made other astrologers like Galileo want to correct what he might’ve been doing wrong and so they did. Even though he was wrong, he helped other theories come along like the Heliocentric System which was made by the Polish astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus

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For instance, Roman astronomer; Ptolemy developed the “Geocentric” theory of the universe, in which the Earth was believed to be in the center of the universe. (Doc. C) Furthermore, polish astronomer; Nicolaus Copernicus, who relied on mathematics and observations created a different understanding of the universe, called the “Heliocentric” universe. Heliocentric meaning “sun-centered,” in other words meaning that the sun is believed to be at the center of the universe unlike the Geocentric theory. (Doc. C)

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How did Islamic astronomers poke holes in the theories attributed to Ptolemy, one of the most distinguished and well-known astronomers of all time? Islamic astronomers including Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi, accompanied by others like Ibn Al-Haytham, and Al-Biruni were influenced by Ptolemy’s calculations, observations, and conclusions. However, it was their ambition for a greater, more sophisticated, and more precise knowledge of the cosmos that led them to critique and diverge from Ptolemy’s theories. These particular Islamic astronomers, accompanied by others, strove to establish and structure an improved version of Ptolemy’s original ideas, heavily contributing to the overall history of astronomy. This paper will delve into their critiques and alternative solutions to Ptolemy's shortcomings.

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