The History of Astronomy: A Very Short Introduction - Michael Hoskin

Category: Science
Language: English
Keywords: Astronomy Mathematics Physics Space Very Short Introductions

Written by Michael Hoskin
Read by Marc Vietor
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins
Release date: 06-08-21

This is a fascinating introduction to the history of Western astronomy, from prehistoric times to the origins of astrophysics in the mid-19th century. Historical records are first found in Babylon and Egypt, and after two millennia the arithmetical astronomy of the Babylonians merged with the Greek geometrical approach to culminate in the Almagest of Ptolemy. This legacy was transmitted to the Latin West via Islam and led to Copernicus’s claim that the Earth is in motion. In justifying this Kepler converted astronomy into a branch of dynamics, leading to Newton’s universal law of gravity. The book concludes with 18th- and 19th-century applications of Newton’s law and the first explorations of the universe of stars.