Re: [Phys-l] Galileo was wrong

[Joseph Bellina <inquirybellina@comcast.net>]

Yep, the only problem was that the spheres crashed into each other.   
Do realize that done carefully, and Copernicus did that in the second  
half of his book, that the Copernican system was no better at  
describing the motions of the planets than was the Ptolemiac system,  
since he too had to resort to the equant, the very thing he objected  
to in the Ptolemiac system.

In that sense Copernicus was a mystically driven reactionary failure.

Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Physics
Co-Director
Northern Indiana Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Collaborative
574-276-8294
inquirybellina@comcast.net




On Sep 22, 2010, at 11:10 PM, Karshner, Gary wrote:

> It is interesting that a Danish protestant on the verge of the  
> thirty years war would have a deal with the Pope. His patron at the  
> end was Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (a Catholic). Kepler made a  
> deal with all concerned to finish the Tycho tables, get Tycho's  
> family paid for them and his instruments, and name them after  
> Rudolf. They are the Rudolphine Tables. As far as I know the Pope  
> never got involved. Tycho had his own system of the universe which  
> actually found wide acceptance. It was the Copernican system with a  
> stationary Earth and the Sun and Moon going around it and the  
> planets all going around the Sun. It let you do Copernican  
> Mathematics but keep Aristotelian physics!
> Gary Karshner
> -----Original Message-----
> From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l- 
> bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of John Clement
> Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 3:56 PM
> To: 'Forum for Physics Educators'
> Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Galileo was wrong
>
> This is certainly in agreement with the Wikipedia.  But I remember  
> reading somewhere that the Pope was interested in his project  
> because it would improve astronomical tables needed for  
> navigation.  And I also recall that the data was supposed to  
> eventually go the Vatican, but Kepler ran off with it.  This may  
> have come out of one of the Harvard Project Physics readers, which  
> had both physicists and historians working together.  Since Tycho  
> had a Holy Roman Emperor at Prague as his patron in later years, he  
> was certainly somewhat under the thumb of the Catholic church.  So  
> there may have been some promises made to wring concessions.  Being  
> a wealthy man, he could afford to go and do where he pleased, while  
> making concessions on paper.
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX
>
> > My understanding is that Brahe was actually trying to find good data
> > that would verify the Ptolemaic system (or more accurately his and/or
> > latter day versions of that system.)
> >
> > > I think this was an ambiguous antecedent.  Kepler was outside, but
> > > Galileo inside.  As I understood Brahe actually was doing his
> > > observations with the support of the Pope, but Kepler ran off with
> > > his notebooks after Brahe's death.
> > >
> > >
> > > > I find it hard to think of Galileo as being outside the influence
> > > > of the Catholic Church.  He seems like a pretty go insider to me.
> > > >
> > > > He needed some sort of circular inertia to explain the continue
> > > > motion of the planets.  Just a guess, perhaps he appealed to the
> > > > ideal circular motion as why they continued.
>
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