Geocentric VS Heliocentric by Cassie Jacobsen

The difference between Geocentric and Heliocentric models

jcm049288 — 2024-05-28 13:46:50 UTC

Geocentric - In Latin Geo - means "earth" and Centric - means "center", giving the geocentric theory its name. The geocentric model is where the earth is in the center of the universe. Everything rotates around the earth including the sun, stars and other planets. No one thought the earth moved around the sun (Heliocentric) because they thought they would be able to feel it. The Catholic Church espesually beleived this because they thought that god would have put earth in the middle of everything because we are the special and powerful and so we could seem closer to god.

Heliocentric - In Latin Helio - means "sun" and Centric - means "center", giving the heliocentric theory its name. The heliocentric model is where the sun is in the center of the universe. Everything rotates around the sun including the stars other planets and of course, earth. Galileo saw with his telescope in 1610 that Venus showed phases, even though staying near the Sun in Earth's sky. This showed that Venus orbits the sun, not earth.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S13Sr-H7TWI

Ptolemy -Geocentric-

jcm049288 — 2024-05-28 14:02:57 UTC

Ptolemy was a famous mathematician and astronomer who was alive around 140 A.D. He advanced the geocentric theory in a form that was accepted for more than 1400 years. He used his own observations during the night and mapped out the movements of the planets, sun and stars to support his theory. He added maths to support his theory. Ptolemy used geometric modles to predict the positions of the sun, moon and planets using epicycles (combinations of circular motion/an orbit within an orbit). He beleived in the geocentric theory, where the earth is in the center of everything. Ptolemy made many contributions to astronomy, mathematics, geography, musical theory, and optics.

Aristotle -Geocentric-

jcm049288 — 2024-05-28 15:09:23 UTC

Aristotle was an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath who was alive from 384-322 B.C. He developed an early model based on the concept of uniform circular motion. Aristotle used observations from lunar eclipses stating that lunar eclipses would not show segments with a curved outline if the earth was not a sphere. Aristotle beleived in the geocentric theory, where everything revolves around the earth. He thought if the earth rotated/moved we would fly into space, since we dont the earth must not move and so it would be in the center of everything. He made the very first/beginning contributions to many fields of philosophy and science.

Galileo -Heliocentric-

jcm049288 — 2024-05-28 15:14:47 UTC

Galileo was an Italian scientist who was alive from 1564-1642. He his known for his contributions to physics, astronomy and scientific philosophy. People consider him as the cheif founder of modern science. He used the new invention of the telescope to confirm that everything is rotating around the sun. He then went on to publish two books on his new discoveries and support for the Copernicus model. He wrote them in Italian not Latin which was unusual for his time. Because Galileo agreed with Copernicus's theory and got in trouble by the church. He went to trial and for going against the geocentric theory and was sentenced to house arrest for life, they also tried to burn all of his books that he published/wrote.

Copernicus -Heliocentric-

jcm049288 — 2024-05-28 15:17:01 UTC

Copernicus was a polymath, mathematician and astronomer who was alive from 1473-1543. He came up with the heliocentric theory and was the first to believe in it and go against to Catholic Church's geocentric theory, where the earth is in the center of it all not the sun. He figured out that the sun must be in the middle because of a careful examination of planetary models. Copernicus was very careful about publicizing his views. He is said to have been the first to discover the solar system. Copernicus created a concept of a universe where the distances of the planets from the sun make a direct relationship to the size of their orbits. His theory about the sun being in the center is correct yet his model had many errors, says NASA.

Giordano Bruno -Heliocentric-

jcm049288 — 2024-05-28 16:00:44 UTC

Giorndano Bruno was a Italian philosopher and poet who was alive around the mid-late 16th century. Bruno was sentanced to be burned alive by the Roman Inquisition for his beliefs and with agreeing with copernicus's heliocentric theory, which he refused to withdraw. Before his death he was also in jail in Rom for 7 years because of his belief in the "plurality of worlds". He got executed in the year 1600, only 33 years before Galileo got sentenced to house arrest for the exact same reason.

The Catholic Church

jcm049288 — 2024-05-29 13:41:05 UTC

The Catholic Church believed in the geocentric theory. They disapproved of the heliocentric theory because the Holy Scriptures say that the Earth is at the center, not the Sun, making us more important and closer to god. If someone went against the geocentric theory or supported the heliocentric theory, they were killed, put in jail or like Galileo, put on house arrest for life. They burned books on heliocentric theory including Galileo's. Only 32 years ago, in 1992, the Roman Catholic Church finally apoligized about what happend to Galileo and they admitted that the heliocentric theory was correct. This apology came 350 years after Galileo's death.

The Telescope

jcm049288 — 2024-05-29 13:49:37 UTC

Galileo used a crude refracting telescope. This telescope was invented around 1608 by Dutch man, Hans Lippershey. Galileo's initial version through the telescope only magnified 8x but was soon bumped up to 20x. These telescopes helped him confirm that everything rotated around the sun and helped support Copernicus's heliocentric theory.

Video:

https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.energy.galileotele2/galileos-telescope/