-
240 BCE
Erathosthenes
-He used the sun of the sun to figure out the size of the earth
-We had previously made vague guesses on the size of the earth, so it was a big dicovery
-Lived: 276-194BC -
150
Claudius Ptolemy
-Combines mathematics with astronomy to predict the movement of planets
-Decided that planets moved in circles
-Though this was wrong, his model was used for a very long time
-Lived: 100-170CE -
1514
Nicolaus Copernicus
-Was the first one to correctly place the sun at the center of the universe (came up with heliocentric model)
-Brought the theory to the world (some had thought of it, he actually brought it to life)
-Lived: February 19, 1743- May24,1543 -
Tycho Brahe
-Helped prove that our universe was heliocentric by scheming the structure
-He was so important because he helped create the model of the universe that we use today
-Lived: December 14, 1546- October 24, 1601 -
Johannes Keppler
-Proved that planets paths were not perfect circles
-This answeres a lot of questions about planetary orbit (solved the mystery of Mars)
-Lived: December 27, 1571- November 15, 1630 -
Sir Issac Newton
-He layed out the idea of gravity in his three Laws of Motion
-Gravity is what we now use to study almost all of the universe (whether we use it, or the lack of it). We also used gravitational pull to explain planetary orbit
-Lived: December 25, 1642- March 20, 1727 -
Albert Einstein
-Suggested that if physics laws are constant through the universe then 1) the speed of light in a vacuum is constant and 2) space and time are linked by an entity called space-time
-His theories were important because they led to the Big Bang theory
-Lived: March 14, 1879- April 18, 1955