claudius ptlomy
Claudius Ptolemy was born about 85 A.D. in Egypt and died about 165 A.D. in Alexandria, Egypt. He did his major works in Alexandria, which was the center of Greek learning. His name Claudius Ptolemy, is a mixture of the Greek Egyptian ‘Ptolemy’ and the Roman ‘Claudius’. This would indicate that he was a descendant from a Greek family living in Egypt and that he was a citizen of Rome, which would be a result of a Roman emperor giving that reward to one of Ptolemy’s ancestors. Very little is known of his life. He made astronomical observations from Alexandria in Egypt during the years AD 127-41. There is no evidence that Ptolemy lived anywhere other than Alexandria. Claudius Ptolemy lived through the time in which the Roman Empire was at its highest peak. The Roman Empire controlled everything around the Mediterranean Sea including Egypt. He was born after the death of Jesus and his resurrection. We do know that Ptolemy used observations made by ‘Theon the mathematician’, and this was almost certainly Theon of Smyrna who was his teacher. This would make sense, since Theon of Smyrna was both an observer and a mathematician who had written on astro
Claudius Ptolemy’s writings in mathematics on plane and spherical trigonometry remain the basics of trigonometry today. His Geography remained the principal work on the subject until the time of Columbus. He codified the Greek geocentric view of the universe, and rationalized the apparent motions of the planets, as they were known in his time. In addition to his well-known works in astronomy, Ptolemy was very important in the history of geography and cartography. Ptolemy knew that the Earth is a sphere. Ptolemy’s is the first known projection of the sphere onto a plane. His Ptolemaic system of the motions of the planets remained the accepted wisdom until Copernicus proposed a heliocentric view in 1543. Ptolemy’s system is more accurate than Copernicus’s. For his accomplishments, Ptolemy has both a Mars crater and a lunar crater named for him. Ptolemy, who gave Greek astronomy its final form in the second century A.D., did the same and more for geography and cartography. His massive work on the subject, which summed up and criticized the work of earlier writers, offered instruction in laying out maps by three different methods of projection, provided coordinates for some eight thousand p
Some topics in this essay:
Sun Moon,
Ptolemy Greek,
Ptolemy Earth,
Greek Egyptian,
Columbus Ptolemaic,
Theon Smyrna,
Syrus Ptolemy,
Claudius Ptolemy’s,
Claudius Ptolemy,
Alexandria Egypt,
motions planets,
claudius ptolemy,
rationalized apparent motions,
theory motions sun,
view 1543,
theory motions,
apparent motions,
detail mathematical,
heliocentric view,
moon planets,
detail mathematical theory,
mathematical theory motions,
rationalized apparent,
motions sun moon,
sun moon,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 818
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
Example Essays Home
