Re: A rotating Earth?

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

> Tycho Brahe's model was geostatic, combining parts of the geocentric and the
> heliocentric models.    Brahe pictured  the Sun and the moon (and presumably
> the stars) orbiting around the earth, but the planets rotated around the
> sun.

The crucial question is whether Brahe considered the Earth to rotate.
I can't find that in local references (my Kuhn is at home, but I don't
recall seeing it there).

> Kepler, using Brahe's own data on Mars, showed that the geostatic model was
> not correct.

Kepler was a Copernican. He certainly accepted a rotating Earth. His
analysis did not speak to that question, however. It was not settled
empirically (to my limited knowledge) until Foucault's demonstration.

Leigh