-
240 BCE
Eratosthenes
first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth
to tell where some planets and the sun lay in the solar system -
100
Claudis Ptolemy
believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe.
so we'd know where we lay in the universe ans where stars and the sun lay -
Feb 19, 1514
Nicolaus Copernicus
His heliocentric system put the Sun at the center of our system
brought it to the world of the Renaissance and used his own observations of the movements of the planets to back up his idea. His ideas, including the revelation that the Earth rotates on its axis, were too different for most of the scholars of his time to accept. -
Johannes Kepler
had the same idea as Brahe
once Brahe died, Kepler stole all the work they've done and worked on it for several years later -
Tycho Brahe
He achieved his goal of measuring to one minute of arc
His aim was to confirm his own picture of the universe, which was that the Earth was at rest, the sun went around the Earth and the planets all went around the sun -
Sir Isaac Newton
the laws of motion
hey form the most intuitively appealing physical theory. -
Albert Einstein
Einstein showed that physical laws are identical for all observers, as long as they are not under acceleration. However, the speed of light in a vacuum is always the same, no matter at what speed the observer is travelling. This work led to his realization that space and time are linked into what we now call space-time.
His work helps astronomers study everything from gravitational waves to Mercury's orbit