Astronomer of the Week #3

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Subject: Astronomer of the Week #3 Sat Feb 23 2008, 08:13

Time for another astronomer of the Week. This time we present Claudius Ptomely.

Part 1

Give me a short biography of "Ptolemy" focusing most on his influence in Astronomy, 250 words minimum!

90 Points

Part 2

I want you to imagine that "Ptolemy" was a wizard and write an episode of his life as a wizard, how would magic help him? You can even attribute to magic one of his discoveries or achievements. (350 words minimum!)

150 points

Bonus

Post a picture of Ptolemy.

10 points

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Remember to site your sources (websites used) and no copying and pasting!

Raistlin The Wizard,

Astronomy Professor

Subject: Re: Astronomer of the Week #3 Sat Feb 23 2008, 14:20

Part 1

Give me a short biography of "Ptolemy" focusing most on his influence in Astronomy, 200 words minimum!

Relatively little is known about Ptolemy’s personal life; after all, he did live a rather long time ago. Approximately from 87-150 AD he lived in the city of Alexandria in Egypt, and it was there that he did the work he was most known for: Astronomy. He wrote a book on the topic called Tetrabiblos. Astronomy was not his only passion; he was also a mathematician and geographer. These professions probably aided him in astronomy, though; due to the proficiency mathematics leant him and the ability to map out the heavens from the mapping out of land he learnt from being a geographer. It was Ptolemy that codified the Greek geocentric view of the universe, that is, he organized the Greek belief that the spherical Earth was the center of the universe based on all that was known about the subject. He unified the all of the information, so instead of knowing bits of it at a time, people could know all of it. He did this by expanding upon Hipparchus’ system of epicycles (a small circle whose centre moves around the circumference of a larger one) and eccentric circles (circles that Deviate from a circular form or path, as in an elliptical orbit) and thus explained his model of the solar system. He used at least 80 epicycles to describe the orbits of the Sun, Moon, and five planets that had been discovered at his time. By use of the model he created, it was even able to predict the positions of the planet for the naked-eye observers. His theory, which held until 1543 when Copernicus put forth his Heliocentric view of the solar system, was detailed in the thirteen book Mathematical Syntaxis (aka the Almagest). Speaking of Ptolemy’s theory as opposed to Copernicus, it is interesting that Copernicus’ theory did not improve upon Ptolemy’s until Kepler’s laws were invented and applied. Copernicus was just showing a different take on how the universe was arranged. Ptolemy’s theory, while held as true until Copernicus, may not have been wholeheartedly believed in by Ptolemy himself! He most likely say it was a method of calculating positions, not exactly how the solar system was laid out.

Interestingly enough, Ptolemy shared his name with the ruling family of Egyptian Pharaohs who were in power from 323 BC to 30 BC. All of the Ptolemys, however, despite residing in Egypt, were actually Greek.

35 Points

Part 2

I want you to imagine that "Ptolemy" was a wizard and write an episode of his life as a wizard, how would magic help him? You can even attribute to magic one of his discoveries or achievements. (300 words minimum!)

Claudius Ptolemy, like others of his time, was accustomed to rising with the sun-literally, not in the manner we mean today, which could roughly translate to about 10am. In those days, it was simply the best way to get all the necessary light he needed to do his work. And he would stay at his work until the sun had set the next day. He needed that sunlight. How was he supposed to calculate, graph, and survey the heavens if he couldn’t even see the parchment upon which he so often wrote? It wouldn’t be possible. But on to other, more important matters, like what he is doing right now, instead of what he was accustomed to doing…

Right now, Ptolemy is attempting to add the finishing touches onto his model that illustrates his theory that the Earth is the center of the universe and the five other plants, sun, and moon rotate around it. Unfortunately, he seems to be having a few problems. Let’s go and have a look-see, maybe while we watch, he’ll have figured something out…

“Why, Zeus? Why won’t it work? It should work…But, I just need to adjust one thing, I know it, and it will match all of my calculations. One thing…and it will all be perfect…” Ptolemy set down his papers and looked at his model once more, the thing he had spent so much time on. At first glance, it may seem fine, but to an eye as trained as his, there was clearly something quite wrong. And if he didn’t fix it, he was going to explode. The alignment of the planet closest to the sun-Mercury-was off, as was the way Venus and Mars related to each other. One quick fix to Mercury would set all to rights, but he couldn’t make it perfect. And in all his years as an astronomer, geographer, and mathematician, if there was one thing Ptolemy had grown to loathe more than any other, it was imperfection. So, he wasn’t too pleased that his model was just that, imperfect.

Impatiently, he tried once more to make sense of what his calculations told him, what his observations had shown him, and nothing seemed to fit into the model he had spent such a long time building. How aggravating…If only I could just magically… Finally, he realized that he had forgotten something. A very obvious something. He was a wizard for Merlin’s sake, and it was about time he started acting like one! Now where’s that wand… After spending a few minutes searching underneath his notes, he at last found his wand. He picked it up, and rolled up his sleeves, trying to concentrate.

Taking a deep breath, he gently prodded Mercury, chuckling slightly as a thought struck him. Here he was; a mere mortal-well, wizard, so he was a bit above the average Alexandrian-working with the movements of the planets like a God himself. How very curious. After he satisfied himself with the adjustments made, he took a step back, and took another deep breath. I keep breathing this much and I’m going to put myself to sleep… He thought before waving his wand over the model, hoping and praying it would come out the way he hoped.

At first, nothing happened, and Ptolemy briefly pondered throwing himself off the lighthouse, before, slowly, the model began to move. The epicycles and eccentric circles sprung to life, and Ptolemy himself sprung into the air with a shout. He had done it, he had proven his theory at long last, and it was time to show the world.

45 points

Bonus

Post a picture of Ptolemy.

It should be recognized that since very little is known about Ptolemy’s personal life, the portrait above is artist imagination.

10 points

Soures
http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/theman.html

Subject: Re: Astronomer of the Week #3 Thu Mar 13 2008, 22:52

Part 1
Ptolemy was born around 87 -150 AD and there is very little information about his personal life. Ptolemy was a mathematician, geographer and an astronomer. During his time Ptolemy had came up with a way that he thought that the planets was moving. He had came up with 80 epicycles to explain the movement of the sun and the moon. He had thought that the order was Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn but these planets and the sun had orbited around the Earth. We know today that the planets orbit around the sun and that there are more than just those five planets but in fact there are seven. Some believe that Ptolemy did not believe that the planets moved in this manner but he had accepted it only as a method of calculating positions because it did work for the most part. Ptolemy then also wrote a book about astrology called Tetrabiblos.

Ptolemy had also known that the Earth was not flat about in the shape of a sphere and he was able to make the first known projection of the Earth in its sphere shape into a plane. The only problem with this projection was that Asia was a little bit too big.

Part 2
If Ptolemy was a wizard there could of have been many things that could of helped him out while he was off making those discoveries. He could of have used magic to help him figure out the movements of the planets. Ptolemy could of taken his wand out of his pocket and made a device like a rocket but using magic and with this magical rocket that he had made he could go into outer space and see the planets and how the move about. Once he was in outer space he would of have also seen that there were more planets than what eh thought there was. He could of have discovered those extra planets all by himself and know that the Sun was the center of our solar system.

Of course being up in space and looking at these planets he might also want to go and look at one ar close. He could then just pull out his wand and make something like a spacesuit. It would be able to give him plenty of air and would protect him from anything that might be on the planets to harm him. He would be able to exit his magical rocket and travel where no man has traveled before. He would be able to collect some items off of each of these planets and bring them home to all to see and for scientists to do some tests on. He could become very famous if he could think of a cover up story as to how he had obtained these items. If he couldn’t others would just think that he was telling a lie. Then he could just use his wand and modify their memories so that they would think that his cover up story wasn’t a lie but was in fact the truth. If Ptolemy had a wand he could become much more famous than what he is already.

Sources:
http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/theman.html,

Subject: Re: Astronomer of the Week #3 Wed Mar 26 2008, 00:29

Part 1
Claudius Ptolemaeus known as Ptolemy, was a Greek mathematician, geographer, astronomer, and astrologer. He lived in Roman Egypt, and was probably born there; he died in Alexandria. Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises; The Almagest, The Geography & Tetrabiblos. The Almagest is mostly astronomical. The Geography is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. In Tetrabiblos he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.

Ptolemy claimed to have derived his geometrical models from astronomical observations spanning more than 800 years, though astronomers have for centuries suspected that his models' parameters were adopted independently of observations. Ptolemy presented his astronomical models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The Almagest contains a star catalogue, which contains 48 constellations.

His Planetary Hypotheses went beyond the mathematical model of the Almagest to present a physical realization of the universe as a set of nested spheres, where he used the epicycles of his planetary model to compute the dimensions of the universe. According to his calculations the Sun was at an average distance of 1210 Earth radii while the radius of the sphere of the fixed stars was 20,000 times the radius of the Earth. Ptolemy presented a useful tool for astronomical calculations in his Handy Tables, which tabulated all the data needed to compute the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets, the rising and setting of the stars, and eclipses of the Sun and Moon. His model and computational methods were adopted and modified in the Arabic speaking world and in India, since they were of sufficient accuracy to satisfy the needs of astronomers, astrologers, timekeepers, calendar keepers, and navigators.

Part 2
(I'm gonna do it as an Informative Narrative story, I hope it's ok, if not I can change it. And I'm mostly going to base it in one day of his life making observations because it is said most of his discoveries he made by observations.)

Ptolemy woke up one day from this crazy dream he had. He dreamt he was a muggle! Ha! He really couldn't imagine what his life would be like if he was a muggle. Using his wand he made himself some breakfast. After he ate and got all cleaned up he took his telescope & his astronomy gear and went outside. There he set his table, his telescope & his notebook and prepared himself for work.

Yesterday he had managed to discover a whole new branch of stars, and using his wand he managed to go up there and come close to them to study them closely. He took out his table where he had recorded all his discoverings, it had lots of more space to cover. Later on he was going to work on something else, but for now he would settle for stras. It was a prety difficult & tiring job. He had to saty up all night and sleep all day, he had reversed his days & nights in order to complete this investigation and succesfully record it in his book. But as determined as he was he had managed it.

He sat down on his stool and started looking. But before that, using his wand he activated his quill so that it would automatically write whatever he told it to write, that way he wouldn't waste time writing. He saw some familiar stars but always stopped to look at them, after all it was a very nice view. Then something caught his attention. It was a couple of stars all huddled together making up a shape. He quickly told the quill to scribble some stuff down & took his wand. He got his rocket he had bulti a while ago and soared into the sky to take a closer look. Using his wand he picked up one of the stars and examined it closely. He saw how hard yet how soft it was. He placed it into position and noticed how all the stars where in place and none moved. Even if he tried to misplace them they would always arrange themselves. He went back down and scribbled some thoughts. He continued looking a little more and found some more interesting stuff. He watched his clock and it was close to morning already, he was amazed at how fast time went by. But without going back inside he took a look to see what the shape of the stars was, starngely they formed a letter P, the first latter of his name. He scribbled some more and went inside. "Accio Equipment!" and all of his things packed themselves up and quickly got inside. Working with magic definitely made things easier and saved him time.

Bonus
Astronomer of the Week #3 5we0zk

Sources: google.com

Subject: Re: Astronomer of the Week #3 Mon Aug 18 2008, 11:49

Hufflepuff

Just_Ginny - 90 + 10 Astronomer of the Week #3 Smilie11

Ravenclaw

stephy - 40 Astronomer of the Week #3 Smilie14

Princess_Potter - 89 Astronomer of the Week #3 Smilie11

Please remember that with the new classes rules
you may keep doing classes after they're marked as they are now always
open, so I'll keep waiting for your works.

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