Our Place in the Universe Understanding Fundamental Astronomy from Ancient Discoveries 1st edtion by Sun 3319541722 9783319541723

Our Place in the Universe Understanding Fundamental Astronomy from Ancient Discoveries 1st edtion by Sun Kwok – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 3319541722, 9783319541723

Product details:

• ISBN 10: 3319541722
• ISBN 13: 9783319541723
• Author: Sun Kwok

If you have ever wanted to understand the basic principles of astronomy and celestial movements, you should read this book. Using pictures of the sky observed from different places on Earth, as well as drawings of ancient astronomical methods and tools, Prof. Sun Kwok tells this story in an entertaining and fascinating way.Since the beginning of human civilization, people have wondered about the structure of the cosmos and our place in the Universe.  More than 2,000 years ago, our ancestors knew that the seasons were unequal, the Earth was an unattached object floating in space, and stars existed that they could not see.  From celestial observations, they concluded that the Earth was round.

Table of contents:

Chapter 1: Humans and the Sky

1.1 Repeating Days and Nights

1.2 Cycles of the Seasons

1.3 Early Sky Watchers

1.4 Worship of the Sun

1.5 The Orderly Heaven

1.6 Questions to Think About

Chapter 2: Effects of Celestial Motions on Human Activities

2.1 Daily Motion of the Sun

2.2 The Annual Motion of the Sun

2.3 The Seasons

2.4 Regular But Not Simple

2.5 Questions to Think About

Chapter 3: Ancient Models of the Universe

3.1 A Spherical Heaven

3.2 Chasing the Shadows

3.3 Not All Directions Are Equal

3.4 Path of the Sun

3.5 Where Does the Sun Go at Night?

3.6 Questions to Think About

Chapter 4: Turning of the Heavens

4.1 The Pole of Heaven

4.2 The Heaven Is Tilted

4.3 A Free Floating Earth

4.4 Questions to Think About

Chapter 5: A Spherical Earth

5.1 The Sun Moves in Complete Circles

5.2 A Different Show for Everyone

5.3 Evidence for a Non-flat Earth

5.4 The Changing Horizon

5.5 How High Can the Sun Go?

5.6 Different Lengths of Daylight

5.7 Pole Star and Latitude

5.8 Celestial Navigation

5.9 Are There Stars We Can´t See?

5.10 Success of the Round-Earth Hypothesis

5.11 Questions to Think About

Chapter 6: Journey of the Sun Among the Stars

6.1 The Sun Moving Through the Stars

6.2 Two Kinds of Motion of the Sun

6.3 Inclination of the Ecliptic

6.4 Placing Stars on the Celestial Sphere

6.5 An Asymmetric Universe

6.6 Questions to Think About

Chapter 7: A Two-Sphere Universe

7.1 An Inner Sphere for Humans, an Outer Sphere for Celestial Objects

7.2 The Armillary Sphere

7.3 Armillary Spheres as Observing Instruments

7.4 The Two-Sphere Cosmology

7.5 Questions to Think About

Chapter 8: Dance of the Moon

8.1 Shifting Locations of Moonrise

8.2 Two Different Lengths of a Month

8.3 Eclipses and Phases of the Moon

8.4 Size and Distance to the Moon

8.5 The Self-spinning Moon

8.6 Questions to Think About

Chapter 9: The Calendars

9.1 How Long Is a Year?

9.2 Star Calendar

9.3 What Defines a Year?

9.4 Different Calendars Around the World

9.5 Reform of the Julian Calendar

9.6 What Is so Special About a 24-hour Day?

9.7 Questions to Think About

Chapter 10: The Wanderers

10.1 The Ten Patterns of Venus

10.2 Mars at Opposition

10.3 Moving Backwards

10.4 Two Different Periods for Each Planet

10.5 Astrology

10.6 Planets in the Scheme of the Universe

10.7 Questions to Think About

Chapter 11: The Mystery of Uneven Seasons

11.1 Is the Earth moving?

11.2 Earth Not Exactly at the Center

11.3 The Pole Is Moving

11.4 Shifts of the Zodiac Signs

11.5 Questions to Think About

Chapter 12: Size of the Earth

12.1 First Measurement of the Size of the Earth

12.2 How Far Away Is the Sun?

12.3 Revival of a Flat Earth

12.4 Practical Proof that the Earth Is Round

12.5 Questions to Think About

Chapter 13: Cycles Upon Cycles

13.1 Moving in Circles

13.2 Three Artificial Constructions

13.3 Questions to Think About

Chapter 14: Cosmology According to Aristotle

14.1 Two Worlds and Four Elements

14.2 The Marriage of Cosmology and Religion

14.3 Questions to Think About

Chapter 15: The Post-Ptolemy World

15.1 Size of the Universe According to Ptolemy

15.2 Passing the Torch to the Islamic World

15.3 Not Everything Is Well in the Ptolemy Universe

15.4 A Thousand Year Bandwagon

15.5 Questions to Think About

Chapter 16: The Copernicus Revolution

16.1 The Sun-Centered Universe

16.2 How Far Away Are the Planets?

16.3 Six Books on the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

16.4 Questions to Think About

Chapter 17: Does the Earth Really Go Around the Sun?

17.1 The Equivalency of the Geocentric and Heliocentric Models in Their Simplest Forms

17.2 New Explanations of Old Facts

17.3 What Copernicus Really Accomplished

17.4 Questions to Think About

Chapter 18: The Legacy of Copernicus

18.1 A Larger Universe

18.2 An Infinite Universe?

18.3 No Place for Heaven

18.4 Copernicus Meets Confucius

18.5 What We Learned from Copernicus

18.6 Questions to Think About

Chapter 19: A New Star in the Sky

19.1 A Need for more Accurate Measurements

19.2 A Geometric Universe

19.3 The Role of the Sun

19.4 The Way It Is, Rather than the Way It Should Be

19.5 Motivation and Legacy

19.6 Questions to Think About

Chapter 20: The Imperfect Heaven

20.1 More Stars in the Sky

20.2 Galileo´s Promotion of Copernicus

20.3 How Things Move

20.4 Galileo´s Explanation of a Moving Earth

20.5 Questions to Think About

Chapter 21: Unification of Heaven and Earth

21.1 The Moon Is Falling

21.2 Prediction of Future Space Flights

21.3 A Force Without Agent

21.4 A Physical Universe

21.5 Questions to Think About

Chapter 22: Epilogue

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