Astronomy assignment writing

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Science

Astronomy 101

British Columbia Open University

Description

Most of these questions will require doing research/reading outside of the course material. That's one of the essential points of homework. Also, there is relevant material available under the resources tab on the course web site.


  1. The most dominant early philosophers in Ancient Greece or Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes. Some of their contributions were discussed in class. However, all three of these philosophers (and more) have the same point of origin in the Greek world, the sea colony of Miletus. Provide a set of reasons that may have promoted the kind of intellectual thinking that occurs in Miletus, but not elsewhere in the early Greek world.

  2. Describe some of the necessary assumptions needed for Erasthosenes method to work. Although this method produced a reasonably accurate measure of the size of the Earth, what do you think the major sources of error might be?

  3. Another philosopher we will not discuss in detail in class is Plato but Plato's geometry and notions of geometrical harmony are very influential: Explain the overall logic behind Plato's "four elements" and why does he map these elements into particular shapes? Are there any observations that Plato could have made to support the existence of these four elements?

  4. Explain how the concept of relative motion (first introduced by Cusa) helps to promote the idea that the Earth could be going around the Sun.

  5. Some quotes from Lucretius's Poem: "On the Nature of Things" are presented (ATTACHED FILE)Here provide a good example of deep and forward thinking. But this work is full of other outstanding ideas and quotes. Find 3 additional quotes, ideas or passages in this work and explain why you think they are profound in the context of the time period in which this piece was written. You will probably want to do this question by going to this summary page : https://newepicurean.com/suggested-reading/lucreti...and identify some interesting ideas and then find the supporting text within the poem itself.

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A Remarkable poem written by Lucretius in about 100 BC On the Nature of Things Atomism • All reality consists of minimal sized bits of matter– “atoms”—separated by empty space— “void”. • All things are made of various combinations of atoms. • Greek “a-tom” = not cut. Democritus (460-370) Greek philosopher Epicurus (342-270 BC) Greek Philosopher Modifies ideas Extends application  (99-55 BC)  Roman Poet  Records ideas of Epicurus in poetic form “On the Nature of Things”  Counteract influence of religion.  Bad things in life mainly due to ignorance.  Counter ignorance & irrationality with knowledge.  Teach people truth about the nature of things.      Six books (chapters): Books 1 & 2: Basic principles of atomistic physics Books 3 & 4: The nature of the soul. Books 5 & 6: Explain the rest of the world—astronomy, meteorology, biology, geology, etc. No need to bring in god to explain. “Atomism is the most important and farreaching hypothesis ever formulated about nature.” Lecture at Cal Tech 1961. - Feynmann
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