WHAT IS THE GREEK’S

VIEW OF MOTION AND

THE UNIVERSE?
• The Ancient Greeks, specifically the
Ionian School of Philosophies founded
by Thales of Miletus attempted to ask
questions about the universe and
answered then through reason,
observation and application of
Geometry. They saw the universe from
a natural mechanistic view.
• The ideas of
Thales were
refined by
Anaximander when
he proposed that a
cylindrical earth is
at rest in the
center of the
universe,
surrounded by air,
and by one or
more spherical
shells with holes in
them.

His view of the universe introduced a mechanistic view moving beyond

a mythological and supernatural explanation of the Universe.
Later Ionians contributed more ides and discoveries:
• Anaximenes suggested hat the stars were fixed onto a solid
transparent crystal line sphere that rotated about the earth.
• Anaxagoras stated that the moon shine by reflected
sunlight had mountains and was inhabited and the sun was
not god but a largely fiery stone much larger that Greece an
large distance from earth.
• Empedocles said that light traveled fast but not at infinite
speed.
• Democritus proposed that the Milky way was composed of
thousand of unresolved stars.
• In 600 BC, Pythagoras was one of the first to
use mathematics to challenge, question and
support his observations of the stars. He and his
followers believed in a well-ordered harmonious
universe based on geometry rather that
experiments. They used regular geometric
solids, especially the sphere to find harmonics
and ratios in the natural world.
• Plato, an Athenian, viewed the universe as
perfect and unchanging. Stars were eternal and
divine, embedded in an outer sphere. He
reasoned that the most perfect orbit of a planet
would be circular and its motion is constant like
the stars. His idea of the universe is just a vague
representation of the real world. He was not
concerned with how direct observation
correlated with his ideas but he recognized that
geometrical models could be used to fit
observations and save appearances.
• According to Plato, “Saving the
Appearances” is putting forward
mathematical relationships which
correspond to observation without making
any attempt to suggest a physical
explanation for the relationship.
• Any geometrical model of perfection in the case
of planetary motion must produce by
Empedocles motions that are seen against the
celestial sphere. The universe was also
described as a large spherical ball with the stars
all at the edge and the earth in the center.
• It is the apparent
daily motion of
the sky from east
to west in which
celestial objects
are seen to rise
and set. This
phenomenon is a
result of the
earth’s rotation
on the axis from
west to east.

DIURNAL MOTION
• It carries the sun eastward in the sky over the course of an
entire year. It brings in new constellations as the year
progresses. Earth moves about 1 degree per day toward
east so constellation move about 1 degree per day toward
west.

ANNUAL MOTION
• Some of the heavenly bodies called the stars are
fixed. A few of the heavenly bodies did not stay
in the same place relative to the others. They
move against the backdrop of the celestial
sphere. They are known as wandering stars or
planets. The planets do not only move relative
to the fixed stars but they change direction,
generally moving from west to east. This is
called the retrograde motion of the planets.
RETROGRADE MOTION
RETROGRADE MOTION
• The truth behind the motions of heavenly
objects must be circular motion at a
constant speed which forever remains the
same.
• According to Plato, logical arguments
based on reality of planetary motions,
geometry and logic must be used to save
appearance.
• Another Greek astronomer, Hipparchus
noted that the position of the stars were
shifted in a systematic way which indicated
that they were not the ones moving but the
earth. This motion of the earth is called
precession which consists of a cyclic
wobbling in the Earth’s axis of rotation with
a period of 25, 772 years.
• Also moving in this wobble is the projection
of a great circle onto the sky of the earth’s
equator which is called the Celestial
Equator. Another great circle called ecliptic
intersects with the celestial equator. The
ecliptic and celestial equator intersect at
two points called the equinoxes.
It pertains to movement of matter that has been classified by
Aristotle as alteration, natural (vertical) and horizontal (or
violent) motion.
• Alteration motion refers to the motion of chemical change
like burning and decay.
• Natural is the motion that puts objects in its natural position
such as the earth below water, water below air, air below
fire and all below others.
• Horizontal happens when there is a force that moves an
object.

ANNUAL MOTION