Our celestial clockwork : from ancient origins to modern astronomy of the solar system / Richard Kerner, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kerner, R., author.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Astronomy--History.

Astronomy.

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxv, 476 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Singapore ; Hackensack, NJ : World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., [2022]

Summary:

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. How we see the world

1.1. Preamble

1.2. Visible light

1.3. Resolution capacity of human eye

1.4. The spherical illusion

1.5. Atmospheric refraction and aberration

1.6. Why the sky is blue

1.7. Stereoscopic vision and parallax

1.8. Perception of brightness and stellar magnitudes

1.9. Conclusion: Plato's cave metaphor

2. The visible sky

2.1. Preamble

2.2. Stars and constellations

2.3. The Sun's diurnal and annual motions

2.4. The Moon, its motion and phases

2.5. The planets

2.6. The Milky Way

2.7. Comets and meteors

3. The eclipses

3.1. A satellite or a sister planet?

3.2. How the Moon moves

3.3. Why do the eclipses happen?

3.4. How often do eclipses occur?

3.5. How long does a solar eclipse last?

3.6. Measuring the distance to the Moon by parallax

3.7. Lunar eclipses

3.8. Occupations

4. Ancient astronomers and mathematicians

4.1. Preamble

4.2. Astronomy and astrology

4.3. Ancient Egypt

4.4. Ancient Babylon

4.5. The science of ancient Greece

4.5.1. Before Aristotle

4.6. Greek philosophy after Socrates

4.6.1. Aristotle's logic

4.6.2. Aristotle's physics

4.6.3. The post-Athenian period

4.7. Ancient Greek astronomy

4.8. Ptolemy and his system

4.9. Science of Medieval Islam

4.9.1. Mathematics in the Islamic world

4.9.2. Arab and Islamic astronomy

5. Observers and observatories

5.1. Preamble

5.2. First observatories

5.3. Ancient astronomical devices

5.4. Medieval Islamic observatories

5.4.1. The Maragha Observatory

5.4.2. Ulugh Beg

5.5. Europe takes over

5.6. The first telescopes

5.7. Johann Hevelius

5.8. John Flamsteed and the Greenwich Observatory

5.9. William Herschel

6. Measuring time

6.1. Days and nights, hours and minutes

6.2. Weeks and months

6.3. Tropical and sidereal years: Precession

6.4. The first calendars

6.5. The Gregorian and improved Julian calendars

7. Measuring space

7.1. Preamble

7.2. Thales and Pythagoras

7.3. Pythagoras and trigonometry

7.4. Euclidean geometry

7.5. From a flat to a spherical Earth

7.6. How Eratosthenes measured the Earth

7.7. How Aristarchus found distances to the Sun and the Moon

7.8. Modern parallax measurements

7.9. Discovering the Globe

7.9.1. The route to India

7.9.2. Columbus' discoveries

7.9.3. Magellan's ultimate proof

7.10. Maps and cartographers

8. The Copernican revolution

8.1. Copernicus' life

8.2. Sources of inspiration

8.3. The first attempts

8.4. The Copernican heliocentric system

8.5. The next five books

8.6. Critics and enthusiasts

8.6.1. Religious objections

8.6.2. Giordano Bruno's ordeal

9. Tycho Brahe, the prince of astronomers

9.1. Preamble

9.2. Tycho Brahe's life

9.3. The Uraniborg

9.4. Two extraordinary events: the nova of 1572 and the comet of 1577

9.5. The Tychonic system

9.6. Prague and Kepler

9.7. Tycho's legacy

10. Galileo and the new physics

10.1. Galileo Galilei's life and achievements

10.2. Galilean mechanics

10.2.1. The free fall

10.2.2. Relativity of motion

10.3. The telescope and astronomical discoveries

10.4. The "Dialogo" and its consequences

10.4.1. The trial

10.4.2. The last years

11. Kepler and the new astronomy

11.1. Johannes Kepler' life and achievements

11.2. Quest for harmony

11.3. The limits of the Copernican system

11.4. How Kepler determined the shape of the Martian orbit

11.5. The ellipse and its properties

11.6. Kepler's laws

11.6.1. Explaining the epicycles

11.7. Ahead of his time

11.7.1. Science beyond astronomy

11.7.2. Somnium, the first science-fiction novel

12. Newton and universal gravity

12.1. Preamble: The glorious 17th century

12.2. Newton's life and achievements

12.3. Mathematics

12.4. Physics

12.5. Newtonian mechanics

12.6. Universal gravity

12.7. Kepler's laws explained

12.8. Precession of Earth's axis and of apsides

12.9. Critical assessment of Newton's worldview

13. The tides

13.1. First observation: Variation of the height of tides

13.2. Explanation of tides by Newton's gravity theory

13.3. Numerical results and the density ratio

13.4. Physical and astronomical consequences of tides

13.5. The Roche limit

14. Huygens and Cassini

14.1. Preamble

14.2. Huygens' life and achievements

14.3. Mathematics and physics

14.4. Astronomy

14.5. Determining longitudes and chronometry

14.6. Cassini's life and discoveries

14.7. Cassini's astronomical discoveries

14.8. Determining distances in the Solar System

14.9. Roemer and the speed of light

15. Halley and the transit of Venus

15.1. Edmond Halley

15.2. The Halley comet

15.3. Mercury's transits

15.4. The transits of Venus and solar parallax

15.5. Final estimate of the astronomical unit

16. Cavendish and the Earth's mass

16.1. Preamble

16.2. Henry Cavendish

16.3. The torsion balance experiment

16.4. Masses and gravitational constant defined

16.5. Gravity and planets' spherical shape

16.6. Deformation due to rotation.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9789811214592

981121459X

9789811215315

9811215316

OCLC:

1251737604

Publisher Number:

99988701653