Nicolaus Copernicus : making the Earth a planet / Owen Gingerich and James MacLachlan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gingerich, Owen, author.

MacLachlan, James H., 1928- author.

Series:

Oxford portraits in science.

Oxford portraits in science

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Copernicus, Nicolaus, 1473-1543.

Copernicus, Nicolaus.

Astronomers--Poland--Biography.

Astronomers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (124 p. ) ill. ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2005]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Nicolaus Copernicus launched a quiet revolution. No scientist so radically transformed our understanding of our place in the universe as this curious bishop's doctor and church official. In his quest to discover a beautiful and coherent system to describe the motions of the planets, Copernicus placed the sun in the center of the system and made the earth a planet traveling around the sun.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Chapter 1. Expanding the World

Chapter 2. School Days in Poland

Chapter 3. At the University in Cracow

Sidebar: Astronomy before Copernicus

Chapter 4. A Scholar in Italy

Sidebar: Ptolemy's Equant

Sidebar: The Myth of Epicycles-on-Epicycles

Chapter 5. The Breakthrough

Chapter 6. An Earth-Shaking Development

Sidebar: Parallax: Using Geometry to Find Distance

Chapter 7. The Busy Canon

Sidebar: Copernicus's Instruments and Observatory

Chapter 8. On the Revolutions

Epilogue

Chronology

Further Reading and Websites

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

W.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-803660-4

1-4294-6212-4