Hi guys this is my third post which is about astronomy. The ancient Greeks created geometry to help study how the earth goes around the sun, the size of the earth, and that the moon went around the earth. I will talk about 3 famous Greek philosophers Thales, Anaxagoras, and Aristarchus. Thales discovered that the earth is round and was the first scientist to create a scientific explanation for planets, weather, and stars instead of it all being dictated by the gods. Thales didn't get everything right. He thought since water was necessary for all existence, everything was made of water.Thales was right that everything is made out of something, but those things are protons and neutrons not water. He did get something's right though, he was right that the earth is round, the moon was lit by reflecting light, and according to Herodotus is that he was the first person to calculate an eclipse. He also was a great mathematician which helped him with his discoveries such as discovering that circle is bisected by the diameter. Next is Anaxagoras, he was the first person to have an accurate definition for an eclipse, he also.Theorized that the sun was made of hot-metal, the moon was earthy, and the stars were fiery stones. Anaxagoras thought that the only state of the cosmos was a mixture of all ingredients so none were evident, but the mixture was not uniformed or homogeneous. Aristarchus figured out the relative distance between the earth, sun, and moon. Aristarchus measured the distance of 87 degrees and the ratio was 1/19. The actual distance is 89 degrees, 51 minutes, and 1/400 the earth is 400 times farther than the moon then the sun.
http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro201/aristarchus.htm
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/astronomy/#!
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/thales/#!
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anaxagoras/
http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro201/aristarchus.htm
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/astronomy/#!
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/thales/#!
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anaxagoras/