Lecture 14: The Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus revived Aristarchus' Heliocentric System in\nan attempt to rid Ptolemy's geocentric system of the un-Aristotelian\nidea of the Equant. He desired to create a model of the planets that\nwould please the mind as well as preserving appearances. Rather than\nreinstate the ideal of the Aristotelian World View, he was to set the\nstage for its overthrow after nearly 2000 years of supremacy, and within\ntwo centuries give birth to the modern world.\nThis lecture describes the astronomical world from the end of the classical\nage until the birth of Copernicus, and then describes his revolutionary\nidea of putting the Sun, and not the Earth, at the center of the Universe.\nRecorded 2007 Oct 9 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus campus of The\nOhio State University. NOTE: Due to a recorder malfunction, only the\nfirst 15 minutes of this lecture was recorded.