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Re: Copernican Revolution

In "The Copernican Revolution," Thomas Kuhn wrote: "[Copernicus'] full
system was little if any less cumbersome than Ptolemy's had been. Both
employed over thirty circles; there was little to choose between them in
economy. Nor could the two systems be distinguished by their accuracy.
When Copernicus had finished adding circles, his cumbersome sun-cenetered
system gave results as accurate as Ptolemy's, but it did not give more
accurate results."

Dave
----------
From: Larry Smith <Larry.Smith@SNOW.EDU>
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Copernican Revolution
Date: Sat, Feb 19, 2000, 12:14 PM


Historical question: I thought Copernicus' heliocentric model was not
initially any more accurate than Ptolemy's. Didn't he even have to have a
few epicycles himself? Until Kepler? (See
<http://www.physics.gmu.edu/classinfo/astr103/CourseNotes/ECText/ch02_txt.ht
m#2.2.1.>.)

Not according to NPR's "Math Guy" this morning:
<http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/wesat/20000219.wesat.04.ram>.

Larry