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Aristarchus, Sun at center of Universe |
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Aristarchus, Sun at center of Universe > Website 
Aristarchus of Samosis the first person we know of who suggested that the earth might go around the sun and not the other way around. He figured this out by looking at the shadow of the earth on the moon during an eclipse of the moon (now that Thales had shown how to predict eclipses and Anaxagoras had shown how eclipses worked). He used Euclid's geometric theories, and his own, to do his calculations. Most people at the time thought this was ridiculous, and instead followed Aristotle's idea that the sun went around the earth. Copernicus, at the end of the Middle Ages, almost two thousand years later, was the first person to take Aristarchus seriously. Aristarchus also used the work of Eratosthenes to figure out the size of the moon, and to calculate that the sun had to be a lot bigger than either the earth or the moon (though he didn't get the sizes right because he didn't have a good telescope).
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Thales, 1st Greek Philosopher
Thales of Miletus seems to be the first known Greek philosopher, scientist and mathematician although his occupation was that of an engineer. He is believed to have been the teacher of Anaximander (611 BC - 545 BC) and he was the first natural philos... |
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Anaxagoras, Cause of Eclipses
Greek philosopher of nature remembered for his cosmology and for his discovery of the true cause of eclipses. He was associated with the Athenian statesman Pericles. About 480 Anaxagoras moved to Athens, then becoming the centre of Greek culture, and... |
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Aristotle, Greek Philosopher
He studied (367-347 B.C.) under Plato and later (342-339 B.C.) tutored Alexander the Great at the Macedonian court. In 335 B.C. he opened a school in the Athenian Lyceum. During the anti-Macedonian agitation after Alexander's death Aristotle fled (32... |
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Euclid of Alexandria, Mathematician
Euclid of Alexandria is the most prominent mathematician of antiquity best known for his treatise on mathematics The Elements. The long lasting nature of The Elements must make Euclid the leading mathematics teacher of all time. However little is kno... |
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Eratosthenes, Measuring the Earth
Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a Greek scholar who lived and worked in Cyrene and Alexandria. Eratosthenes was director of the famous library in Alexandria, and is known for numerous important contributions to mathamatics, geography, and astronomy. In pa... |
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Copernicus, Earth moves around the Sun
Nicolaus Copernicus was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Sp... |
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Who • What • When • Where • Which |
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