PTolemaic
Claudius Ptolemy Ptolemy Claudius; Ptolemy (about 90, Ptolemy, Egypt ~ 168, Alexandria) was an ancient Greek geographer, astronomer and mathematician. I have translated Ptolemy and Dorumo. Long-term astronomical observation. I have written a lot in my life. Among them, Astronomical Masterpieces (also known as Grand Synthesis Volume 13) mainly discusses his geocentric theory, which holds that the earth is the center of the universe and stands still, and the sun, moon, planets and stars all move around it. He is the first scientist in the world to systematically study the composition and movement of the sun, moon and stars and make achievements. This book was regarded as the standard work of astronomy, and the geocentric theory was not overthrown until16th century when Copernicus published it in Heliocentrism. Another important work, Geography Guide (8 volumes), mainly discusses the determination of the shape, size, latitude and longitude of the earth and the projection method of the map, which is a summary of the knowledge of mathematical geography in ancient Greece. There are 27 maps of the world and 26 maps of regions in the book, which was later called Ptolemy Map. He made an instrument for measuring latitude and longitude and an angular distance instrument similar to China's armillary sphere; Through systematic astronomical observation, the position table including 1028 stars was compiled, and the average distance from the moon to the earth was calculated to be 29.5 times the diameter of the earth, which was quite accurate in ancient times. He also studies geometry. He also wrote Optics (5 volumes) and so on. Claudius Ptolemy was born around 90 AD. Like many great scholars at that time, he also came to Alexandria to study. Ptolemy and Strebo together laid the foundation for the study of geography and cartography. Ptolemy also made great achievements in astronomy, optics and music. Stredu's interest in geography is mainly focused on practical aspects-how to show the world on the map. Ptolemy's research angle is more scientific and theoretical. He wants to know the whole world-not only where human beings can live, but also how the earth is connected with the vast universe. Like most scholars, Ptolemy believed that the world was a sphere and put forward the following reasons: 1. If the earth is flat, people all over the world will see the sun rise and set at the same time. As we move northward and get closer to the North Pole, more and more stars will disappear in the southern sky, but at the same time, many new stars will appear. 3. Whenever we sail from the ocean to the mountains, we will feel that the mountains are constantly rising from the sea; But as we gradually moved away from the land and headed for the sea, we saw the mountains sinking into the sea. In Ptolemy's time, geographers called the north-south line drawn by Hishapas meridian, and put it
Lines parallel to the equator are called parallels. Like Chiapas, Ptolemy divided the earth into 360 degrees. He also divided each degree into 60 minutes and each minute into 60 seconds. He developed a string system, and by displaying it on a plane, people have a more intuitive concept of minutes and seconds. Ptolemy's system enables cartographers to accurately determine the position of objects on the earth, and it has been used to this day. Ptolemy knew that by measuring data from the sun and stars, every place on the earth could be accurately located. He described two tools for measuring angles. The instrument used to observe the angle of stars is called astrolabe (also called astrolabe). It is a round copper plate or board, divided into several angles, with a rotatable pointer in the center. When the pointer points to a star, its projection will read the angle of the star on the dial. Ptolemy also said that in order to ensure the level of the disk, the astrolabe should be placed on a triangular base or pedestal. The second instrument described by Ptolemy was the horn sundial. It is made of a square stone or wood block with a post inserted next to it. It is used to measure the height of the sun every day, not every hour. If we put this instrument in a fixed position and insist on recording the height of the sun every day of the year, then we can accurately judge the position of this place. In the preface of Geography, Ptolemy divided map drawing into two types. Regional mapping focuses on mapping of small areas, such as villages, towns, farms, rivers and streets. Geographical mapping pays more attention to large-scale surface phenomena, such as mountains, rivers, lakes and big cities. Drawing such a map requires knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, so as to achieve accuracy.
"Galileo"
Galileo galilei (1564- 1642) is a pioneer of modern experimental science and a great astronomer, mechanic, philosopher, physicist and mathematician in the late Italian Renaissance. He is also the pioneer of modern experimental physics and is known as "the father of modern science". He is an indomitable truth fighter. Engels called him "one of the giants who can break old theories and create new ones regardless of any obstacles". 1564 was born in Pisa on February 5th. He integrated mathematics, physics and astronomy for the first time on the basis of scientific experiments, which expanded, deepened and changed human understanding of material movement and the universe. Galileo devoted his life to proving and spreading Copernicus' Heliocentrism. As a result, he was persecuted by the church in his later years and imprisoned for life. He overthrew the traditional speculative view of nature represented by Aristotle with systematic experiments and observations, and founded a modern science based on experimental facts and with a strict logical system. Therefore, he is called "the father of modern science". His work laid the foundation for the establishment of Newton's theoretical system. 1642 65438+1died in Pisa on October 8th. Galileo's surname is Galileo, and his full name is galileo galilei, but now people usually call him Galileo by his first name instead of his last name. Because of translation problems, there are different opinions about surnames, and Galileo Galilei shall prevail. 1590, Galileo made a famous experiment of "two balls landing at the same time" on the leaning tower of Pisa, which overthrew Aristotle's theory that "the falling speed of an object is proportional to its weight" and corrected this erroneous conclusion that lasted for 1900. However, Galileo's statement that he did experiments in the leaning tower of Pisa was later denied by rigorous textual research. Nevertheless, people from all over the world will visit this ancient pagoda, and they regard it as a monument to Galileo. 1609, Galileo made an astronomical telescope (later called galileo telescope) and used it to observe celestial bodies. He found the unevenness on the surface of the moon and drew the first map of the moon himself. 161065438+17 October, Galileo discovered four moons of Jupiter, which provided conclusive evidence for Copernicus' theory and marked the beginning of its victory. With the help of a telescope, Galileo also discovered Saturn's rings, sunspots, the rotation of the sun, the profit and loss phenomena of Venus and Mercury, the balance between the moon's Sunday and Zhou Yue, and the fact that the Milky Way is composed of countless stars. These discoveries ushered in a new era of astronomy. Galileo wrote the Star Messenger, letters about sunspots, dialogues between Ptolemy and Copernicus, talks about two new sciences, mathematical proofs and testers. To commemorate Galileo's achievements, people named Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto as Galileo satellites. People rushed to preach: "Columbus discovered the new continent and Galileo discovered the new universe." Galileo provided inspiration for Newton's first law and Newton's second law of motion. He attaches great importance to the importance of mathematics in the application of scientific methods, especially the degree of conformity between physical objects and geometric figures!
Halley
In the 1960s, hippies appeared in the west, who were marked by weird hairstyles, worn jeans, tattoos and rock music, and liked to wander around on Harley motorcycles. 1969 Woodstock Music Festival, held on a farm in new york, USA, is the biggest celebration for hippies. For three days and three nights, half a million young people braved the downpour to attend the open-air rock music party in the mud. This public gathering shows the hippie's ideal of "love and peace" to the extreme. Since then, Harley-Davidson motorcycles have been associated with rock and roll in a suggestive way. Although hippies have long since disappeared, Harley motorcycles are not just played by "angry youths", but the deep impression left after the 1960 s has always quietly equated these two words.
Edit this paragraph, astronomer
Edmund halley Edmond Halley Halley
(1656.1.8-1742.1.14) British astronomer and mathematician. Born in the era of scientific revolution based on new ideas, Harley entered Queen's College of Oxford University on 1673. 1676, I went to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, determined the orientation of the stars in the southern sky, completed the southern catalog of the exact position of 34 1 star, recorded a transit of mercury, and made a lot of pendulum observations (the pendulum in the southern hemisphere rotates in the opposite direction to that in the northern hemisphere). 1678, Harley was elected as a member of the Royal Society and obtained a master's degree from Oxford University. 1684, he went to Cambridge to ask Newton for a mechanical explanation of planetary motion. Encouraged by Harley's research progress, Newton expanded his research on celestial mechanics. Harley has the ability to process and reduce a large amount of data. 1686, he published the world's first meteorological map containing the distribution of prevailing winds in the ocean. 1693, he published the mortality table of breslau city, and discussed the relationship between mortality and age for the first time. 170 1 year, he published the geomagnetism of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean according to the navigation compass records. In 1705, Harley published "Astronomy of Comets", expounding the orbits of 24 comets that appeared in 1337- 1698. He pointed out that they appeared in 153 1, 1607 and 18 respectively. 17 16, he designed a new method for observing transit of venus, hoping that through this observation, the solar parallax can be accurately measured and the distance between the sun and the earth can be calculated. In 17 18, Harley published data to identify the spatial motion of stars. 1720 succeeded the second director of Greenwich Observatory. Harley also discovered the self-motion of Sirius, Nanhesan and Dajiao, and the long-term acceleration of the moon.
Kepler
Johannes Kepler, the founder of the law of planetary motion, was born in the German town of Wildstadt in 157 1, which happened to be the 28th year after Copernicus published the theory of celestial motion. In this masterpiece, Copernicus put forward the theory that planets revolve around the sun rather than around the earth. Kepler studied at the University of Tubingen, and received his bachelor's degree from 65438 to 0588, and his master's degree three years later. At that time, most scientists refused to accept Copernicus' Heliocentrism. When studying at Tiebingen University, he heard Heliocentrism's logical exposition and soon believed it. "After graduating from the University of Tiebingen, Kepler served as a professor at the Graz Institute for several years. During this period, he completed his first astronomical work (1596). Although the theory put forward by Kepler in this book is completely wrong, it clearly shows his mathematical talent and creative thinking, so the great astronomer tycho brahe invited him to be his assistant at the observatory near Prague. Kepler accepted this invitation, and in June of 1600, 1 joined the ranks of Taixiu. Tycho died the following year. In recent months, Kepler left a very good impression on people. Soon, Rudolph, the Emperor of Saint Rome, appointed him as a royal mathematician to succeed Tycho. Kepler remained in this position for the rest of his life. As tycho brahe's successor, Kepler carefully studied Tycho's careful observation of the planets over the years. Tycho was the last great astronomer before the invention of the telescope, and he was also the most careful and accurate observer in the history of the world, so his records were extremely valuable. Kepler believes that through careful mathematical analysis of Tycho's records, we can determine which theory of planetary motion is correct: Copernicus Heliocentrism, the ancient Ptolemaic geocentric theory, may be the third theory put forward by Tycho himself. However, after years of painstaking mathematical calculations, Kepler found that Tycho's observation did not conform to the three theories, and his hopes were dashed. Finally, Kepler realized this problem: like Tycho, Laguerre Copernicus and all classical astronomers, he assumed that the orbits of planets were composed of circles or compound circles. But in fact, the orbit of the planet is not circular, but elliptical. /kloc-in 0/600, Kepler published the book Dream, which is a pure fantasy work about the communication between human beings and people on the moon. There are many incredible things in the book, such as jet propulsion, zero gravity state, orbital inertia, spacesuit and so on. People still don't understand how Kepler thought about these high-tech achievements nearly 400 years ago. Although Kepler's book is pure fantasy, it must have some background sources, such as Pythagoras' words or ancient Greek mythology. Just after finding the basic solution, Kepler still had to spend several months making complicated and lengthy calculations to confirm that his theory was consistent with Tycho's observation. He put forward his first two laws of planetary motion in his magnum opus New Astronomy published in 1609. The first law of planetary motion holds that every planet revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit, and the sun is located at a focus of this elliptical orbit. The second law of planetary motion holds that the closer a planet is to the sun, the faster it moves. The speed of the planet changes in such a way that the line between the planet and the sun sweeps the same area at equal time. Ten years later, Kepler published his third law of planetary motion: the farther a planet is from the sun, the longer its running period; The square of the operation period is proportional to the cube of the distance from the sun. Kepler's law gives a complete and correct description of the motion of planets around the sun and solves a basic problem in astronomy. The answer to this question puzzled even geniuses like Copernicus and Galileo. At that time, Kepler failed to explain the reasons for running in orbit according to its laws, and it was not until the late 7th century/kloc-0 that isaac newton made it clear. From Kepler's research on the nature of this movement, we can see that the law of universal gravitation has taken shape. Kepler has proved in the proof of universal gravitation that if the orbit of a planet is circular, then it conforms to the law of universal gravitation. If the orbit is elliptical, Kepler didn't prove it. Newton later proved this with complicated calculus and geometric methods. Newton once said, "If I see farther than others, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants. "Kepler is undoubtedly one of the giants he refers to. Kepler's contribution to astronomy is almost comparable to Copernicus's. In fact, in some respects, Kepler's achievements even left a deeper impression on people. He is more innovative. He faces considerable difficulties in mathematics. At that time, mathematics was far less developed than it is now, and there was no computer to reduce Kepler's computational burden. From the point of view of the importance of Kepler's achievements, it is surprising that his achievements were almost ignored at first, even by such a great scientist as Galileo (Galileo's neglect of Kepler's law is particularly surprising, because there is correspondence between them, Kepler's achievements will help Galileo refute Ptolemy's theory). If others can't understand the significance of Kepler's achievements, he will understand it himself. When he couldn't restrain his great joy, he wrote: "I am addicted to divine ecstasy ... my book has been finished." My contemporaries won't read it, but my descendants will read it-it doesn't matter. It may take a hundred years to get a reader, just as God waited 6000 years to make a person understand his works. "But decades later, the meaning of Kepler's law gradually became clear in the scientific community. In fact, in the late17th century, there was a main argument supporting Newton's theory, that is, Kepler's law can be derived from Newton's theory, and conversely, Newton's law of gravity can be accurately derived from Kepler's law as long as Newton's law of motion exists. However, this requires more advanced mathematical technology, which was not available in Kepler's era. Even in the case of backward technology, Kepler can judge that planetary motion is controlled by gravity from the sun with keen insight. Kepler not only invented the laws of planetary motion, but also made many small contributions to astronomy. He also made important contributions to optics. Unfortunately, he felt sorry for his private affairs in his later years. At that time, Germany began to fall into the chaos of the "Thirty Years War", and few people could hide in Xanadu. One of the problems he encountered was getting paid. Even in prosperous times, the Emperor of Saint Rome paid his salary discontentedly. During the war, Kepler's salary was delayed. Kepler was married twice and had twelve children. Such financial difficulties are really serious. Another problem is that his mother was arrested for witchcraft at 1620. Kepler spent a lot of time trying to get his mother released without torture, and he finally achieved his goal. Kepler died in regensburg, Bavaria on 1630. During the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War, his grave was quickly destroyed. But it turns out that his law of planetary motion is a monument that lasts longer than any stone tablet.
Hawking
Stephen william hawking was born in stephen william hawking, the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death (1942 65438+1October 8th).
[ 1]。 Graduated from Oxford University and Cambridge University successively, and obtained a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge University. He has been in a wheelchair for 47 years because at the age of 265,438+0, he unfortunately suffered from Luger's disease, which would make his muscles atrophy. Only two fingers can move, and speeches and questions and answers can only be completed by a speech synthesizer. 1973, he considered the quantum effect near the black hole, and found that the black hole would emit radiation like a blackbody, and the temperature of the radiation was inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole, so that the black hole would gradually become smaller because of the radiation, but the temperature was getting higher and higher, and finally it ended in a last-minute explosion. The discovery of black hole radiation is of great significance, which unifies gravity, quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics. 1974, his research turned to the theory of quantum gravity. Although people haven't got a successful theory, they have found some characteristics of it. For example, spacetime is not flat on the Planck scale (10-33 cm), but in a powder state. There is no pure state in quantum gravity, the law of causality is broken, and the unknowability rises from classical statistical physics and quantum statistical physics to the third level of quantum gravity. After 1980, his interest turned to quantum cosmology. In July 2004, Hawking revised his original viewpoint of "black hole paradox", and information should be conserved. The subtitle of this book is From BIGBANG to Black Hole. Hawking believes that the contribution of his life lies in that, within the framework of classical physics, the inevitability of black holes and big bang singularities has been proved, and black holes are getting bigger and bigger; However, under the framework of quantum physics, he pointed out that the black hole became smaller and smaller due to radiation, and the singularity of the Big Bang was not only smoothed out by quantum effect, but the whole universe also started from here. The details of theoretical physics will change in the next 20 years, but as far as concept is concerned, it is quite complete now. Hawking's life is very legendary. In terms of scientific achievements, he is one of the most outstanding scientists in history. His contribution was made when he was confined to a wheelchair by Luger's disease for 20 years, which was really unprecedented. Because his contribution has a far-reaching impact on the concept of human beings, there are many descriptions in the media about how he struggled with total paralysis. Therefore, God is fair to everyone. He has a physical defect, but his mind is smart! Nevertheless, one of the translators (Wu) saw him for the first time at 1979. It was my first time to attend the seminar on general relativity of Hawking Group in Cambridge. After the door was opened, a very weak electric sound suddenly sounded behind my head. Looking back, I saw a scrawny man reclining in an electric wheelchair and turning on the electric switch himself. The translator tries to be polite and not too surprised, but he is used to being surprised at the degree of disability of people who meet for the first time. He needs a lot of effort to raise his head. Before he lost his voice, he could only speak in a very weak deformed language, and he could only understand it after working and living with him for several months. He can't write, and reading must rely on a page-turning machine. When reading literary works, he must spread out every page on a big desk, and then he drives a wheelchair to read page by page like a silkworm eating mulberry leaves. People have to pay deep respect to the human soul who pursues the ultimate truth with such a strong will. From his help to the translator's private affairs, we can realize that he is a person. Every day, he drives a wheelchair from his home at No.5 Cambridge West Road, crosses the beautiful Jianhe River and the ancient King's College, and arrives at the office of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in Silver Street. A slope was specially built in the department to facilitate him to take a wheelchair. One of the translators of this book was taught by Hawking for four years and completed his doctoral thesis under his guidance. This book was translated into Chinese at Hawking's request, so that one fifth of the human population could understand his theory. He also proved the area theorem of black holes. In Cambridge University, which is rich in academic tradition, his position is the highest professorship in the history of Cambridge University, that is, Lucasson Professor of Mathematics who was once held by Newton and Dirac. He holds several honorary degrees and is a member of the Royal Society. In the public evaluation, he is considered as one of the most outstanding theoretical physicists after Albert Einstein. He proposed that the big bang started from the singularity, and the black hole would eventually evaporate from this moment, which was an important step to unify the two basic theories of physics in the 20th century-Einstein's theory of relativity and Planck's quantum theory. He was confined to a wheelchair for 40 years because of "gradual freezing" (Luger's disease of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), but he was physically and mentally disabled and turned it into an advantage, overcoming his disability and becoming a supernova in the international physics community. He can't write or even read clearly, but he transcends relativity, quantum mechanics and the Big Bang theory and enters the "geometric dance" to create the universe. Although he was so helpless in a wheelchair, his thoughts traveled brilliantly in the vast space and time, and solved the mystery of the universe. Hawking's charm lies not only in his legendary physical genius, but also in his convincing life force. His constant pursuit of scientific spirit and brave and tenacious personality strength deeply attracted everyone who knew him. Suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, he is almost paralyzed and unable to pronounce, but he still published A Brief History of Time at 1988, which has sold more than 25 million copies so far and become one of the best-selling popular science works in the world. He is praised by the world as "the greatest living scientist", "another Einstein", "an out-and-out man in life" and "a man who dares to challenge his destiny".