Historical Astronomy: Concepts

This is a list of some of the ideas that we cover in class. Some of these links go to a separate page explaining the concept, like the phases of the moon, and others go to the person who developed the idea, like Kepler's Laws. It's pretty random.

• Vocabulary.
• Basic orbital definitions.
• Phases of the moon.
• Eclipses.
• How to calculate the sidereal period from the synodic period.
• How to determine the size of the earth.
• How to determine the distance to the moon.
• How to determine the distance to the sun.
• How to determine a distance using parallax.
• Models of the Solar System.
• Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion.
• Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation.
• Derivation of Kepler's Laws from Newton's Laws.
• Plotting the orbit of the earth using triangulation.
• Plotting the orbit of any planet using triangulation.
• Plotting the orbit of an inner planet using greatest elongation.
• Proof that the earth orbits the sun.
• Proof that the earth rotates on its axis.
• Proof that Ptolemy's model was wrong.

last updated 2/10/12 by david mcclung, copyright 2003. All rights reserved.