The relationship of astronomy and mathematics came through the need for mathematicians to understand the data gathered from astronomical surveillance. The Physics explains the special needs of astronomy that combine mathematics with different phenomena’s without sufficient data for explanation. Many contributed to astronomy such as Greek philosophers like Apollonius, who invented the eccentric circle theory, Ptolemy who theorized about the equant point and Aristarchus who theorized about the epicycle. One of the most famous astronomers and mathematicians was Nicolaus Copernicus who proposed the idea that the sun was stationary object centered in the middle of the universe as the earth spun around it. Copernicus believed his goal of a heliocentric …show more content…
The Heliocentric model although debatable was a genesis in scientific revolution that changed the way planets and the universe was viewed. Copernicus crested the concept of universal distances of planets from the sun was in direct relationship to how big their orbits were. By a carefully analyzing the planetary models, Copernicus developed the heliocentric model to debunk the equant suggestion for true uniform circular motion of the heavenly bodies. Copernicus was not one to be influenced by the ideas and the directions of his peers as many believed that what led him to adopt the heliocentric model. Copernicus's replacement of the equant point with the epicycle, an idea that believed that planets are assumed to move in a small circle which in turn moves along a larger circle called a deferent with both circles rotating clockwise. This made Copernicus’s heliocentric model more complex than …show more content…
In his letter to the pope, Copernicus stated “…to the opposed…that the earth moves” (Copernicus Book I, X). Also, Ptolemy and Copernicus both believed the orbits of the planets were circular, but they were actually elliptical. While the Ptolemy’s geocentric model was really good at predicting planetary positioning, it wasn't accurate. Copernicus’s model explained the true motions of planets, using the motion of the Earth around the sun as a common aspect or cause while Ptolemy’s posed numerous separate causes to the motion of each planet due to him having to replicate Earth’s motion in relation to the Sun. While Ptolemy's model seemed to merely accommodate the idea of the planetary motion surrounded around Earth, Copernicus's theory seems to predict as well as explain the reason for the phenomena of the Sun being the center of every planetary orbit, which was the root the theory’s based into both Copernicus’s and Ptolemy’s individual models. Copernicus believed that “…if having thus assumed the motions which I ascribe to the earth are true…I finally found that if the motions of the other planets are correlated with the orbiting of the earth, not only do their phenomena follow there from but also the order and size of all the planets and spheres…” (Copernicus Book I, X). Copernicus’s heliocentric model was simpler and much more harmonious than the geocentric model of