One of the mathematicians and astronomers who have left their mark on their discoveries was Aristarchus of Samos. This is about a scientist who developed a revolutionary hypothesis for his time. In ancient times, it was dangerous to go against what was stipulated. However, this man claimed that the Sun, and not the Earth, was the fixed center of the Universe. He also claimed that the Earth, along with the other planets, revolved around the Sun. Of course, this caused a stir among people who believed that the Earth was the center of the universe through the geocentric theory.
In this article we are going to tell you about the feats and repercussions that Aristarchus of Samos had in the history of mathematics and astronomy.
Personal information
Aristarco de Samos was the author of the scientific work "Of the magnitude and distance of the Sun and the Moon." In this book, he explained and showed one of the most accurate calculations available at the time of the possible distance between our planet and the Sun. In one of his statements, he said that stars were larger than they appeared. That, although they could be seen as points in the sky, they were suns larger than ours. The size of the universe was much larger than scientists at the time believed.
He was born in 310 BC so you can imagine the basic knowledge that existed at that time. Despite this, Aristarchus of Samos was able to elaborate theories quite true for his time. He died in the year 230 BC. C in Alexandria, Greece. He is the first man who could study the distance from our planet to the Sun in a fairly accurate way. He also studied and stated what was the distance between the Earth and the Moon. He created the heliocentric theory, stating that the Sun was the center of the Universe and not the Earth.
Thanks to the contributions of this scientist, in the seventeenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus was able to elaborate in more detail the heliocentric theory. Being a man who lived so long ago, there is not much information about his life. It is known that he was born in Greece and was an astronomer and mathematician. His entire life was spent in Alexandria. It had influences from Egypt that caused the mathematics of the Greeks to develop centuries earlier. He also had an encouragement from Babylon for astronomy to develop before.
On the other hand, the opening of the East with Alexander the Great helped to foster an exchange of ideas that contributed significantly to the notions of that time. This is the context in which Aristarchus of Samos was developing the heliocentric theory.
Main contributions of Aristarco de Samos
One of the most important contributions is that he managed to discover that the planets were those that were orbiting the Sun, including the Earth. To arrive at this discovery, he used logic. Further, He was able to estimate the size of the moon and the Earth and see how far apart they are.
He was able to discover that, although the stars look very small from the sky, they were like suns with an enormous size, but at very far distances. All these explanations served as the legacy of the Heliocentric Theory exploited by Nicolaus Copernicus.
In ancient times there were numerous theories about the universe. Imagine if there were legends, stories and false beliefs. Many of these theories had a lot of Gods fantasy, stories, etc. The heliocentric theory came to revolutionize everything we had at that time. It was based on the following principles:
- All celestial bodies do not rotate at a single point.
- The center of the Earth is the center of the moon's sphere. This means that the moon's orbit is around our planet.
- All the spheres in the universe (known as planets) are rotating around the Sun and the Sun is the fixed star at the center of the universe.
- The distance between the Earth and the Sun is only a negligible fraction compared to the distance between the other stars.
- The Earth is nothing more than a sphere that revolves around the Sun and has more than one movement.
- The stars are fixed and cannot be moved. The rotation of the Earth is what makes it appear that they are moving.
- The movement of the Earth's orbit around the Sun makes the other planets appear to be receding.
Importance
From all the established points of the heliocentric theory, certain data could be collected in order to obtain a more developed and detailed work in the year 1532. In this year it was called "In the revolutions of the celestial spheres." In this work the 7 main arguments of the theory were compiled and in a more detailed way with calculations demonstrating each argument.
Aristarco de Samos has other works known as “On the sizes and distances of the sun and the moon” and another “The revolutions of the celestial spheres”. Although he is not a person with phrases that go down in history, he does have one that is known in ancient books and says the following: "Being is, being is not."
The importance of this man lies in the fact that he was the first to formulate the heliocentric theory, something too advanced for his time. He recognized that the Earth made a complete revolution around the Sun and that it lasted one year. In addition, it managed to locate our planet between Venus and Mars. He claimed that the stars were almost infinite distance from the Sun and that they were fixed.
From all these discoveries it was possible to inherit the idea that the Earth was not the center of the universe, but that it was the Sun. Furthermore, it also helped to know that the Earth not only rotated around the Sun but on itself on its axis.