The contribution to science of Claudius Ptolemy cannot be overestimated. The scientist’s works in the fields of astronomy, physics, mathematics, geography and even music became, if not fundamental, then at least gave impetus to the development of these sciences. A lot of literature about the scientist’s achievements has survived to this day, but there is no biographical information.
Ptolemy developed a detailed reference book on ancient astronomy, which was published under the name “Almagest”. This work of the ancient scientist became the “bible of astronomy” right down to the theory that laid the foundation for the science of celestial bodies Oh.
The breadth of scientific interests and depth of analysis allowed Ptolemy to become the founder of scientific literature in the fields of geography, physics (optics), music theory, etc. Claudius also developed a theory according to which celestial bodies are constantly moving and function as one mechanism.
The doctrine of the stars and their influence on human destiny, called astrology, was also developed by Ptolemy. He also created an astronomical atlas, in which he indicated the constellations visible from the territory of Egypt.
Childhood and youth
Information about the biography of the ancient scientist has not been preserved. This is due to the fact that contemporaries avoided mentioning Ptolemy in their works. All available information is drawn from the books of the physicist Philip Ball, as well as from the ancient scientist’s own scientific works. It is known that Claudius lived on the territory of modern Egypt, in the city of Alexandria. Information about the scientist’s appearance has also not been preserved; the photos represent a kind of average image from the works of ancient sculptors.
In the book “Almagest” Ptolemy indicates the periods of astronomical observations, which help indirectly establish the dates of the scientist’s life: 127-151. However, after finishing work on the Almagest, at least two more books were published, which were encyclopedias, work on which lasted another 10 years. And according to the records of the philosopher Olympiodor, Claudius worked near Alexandria in the city of Kanope, a suburb of Alexandria Abukir.
Although the name of the scientist (Ptolemy) speaks of Egyptian origin, and biographical information indicates that he belonged to people from Greece, the first name (Claudius) indicates the Roman roots of its owner. Due to the lack of reliable information, it is not possible to establish the nationality of the scientist.
Science and discoveries
Ptolemy's scientific activity began with a work called “The Canopic Inscription,” which represents astronomical parameters carved on a stone stele in the city of Canopus (a suburb of Alexandria in Egypt). Later, the stele was destroyed, but the information written on it was preserved thanks to ancient Greek manuscripts.
Having clarified a number of information, Claudius developed “Tables at Hand” - something like an astronomical reference book. In the theory of geocentrism, this information acted as proof of the immobility of the Earth and the movement of other celestial bodies around it.
Before the world-famous Almagest, Ptolemy worked on a number of scientific books, including Planetary Hypotheses. The difference between this work and others lies in a different system of parameters used to describe the location of astronomical objects. In this treatise the term "ether" appears, which is tightly woven into Ptolemy's theory.
In the Almagest, Ptolemy calculated the distance from the Sun and Moon to the Earth with surprising accuracy for those times. The unit of measurement in the research was the radius of the Earth. However, in the same “Planetary Hypotheses”, the author indicated the distance between the Sun and other planets, without having their radius (instead, the scientist used the following conclusion: the radius of a planet is minimally equal to the distance from it to the next object in the visible Universe), which may indicate a discrepancy between the periods of writing scientific works.
Next book, according to researchers, was the work “Phases of Fixed Stars”. This work represents the first attempts to compile meteorological weather forecasts based on the position of celestial bodies and physical phenomena on the surface of the planet. In the same work they were compiled into unified system knowledge about climate zones and geographical zones Earth, as well as the relative position of geographical objects.
To create astronomical theories, Ptolemy needed geometric knowledge about our planet. The theorem for calculating radii, arcs and circles is the subject of Claudius’s work entitled “Analemma”. The practical significance of this knowledge lies in the construction of sundials, which were built long before Ptolemaic research. The work “Planispheries” is devoted to stereographic projection and its application in astronomical calculations.
The Quadripartum became Claudius's most controversial work because it deals with the basics of astrology, or the influence of celestial bodies on human life. But the eight-volume “Geography” is not inferior to “Almagest” in popularity. It is not so much descriptive geography as mathematical geography with the basics of cartography. In the first volume, the scientist proposed to set the starting point from the prime meridian, which then served as the Canary Islands.
Disputes and discussions regarding Ptolemy's contribution to science are still ongoing, based on the fact that Hipparchus, long before Claudius, described the positions of the celestial bodies in the sky. The poet was the first to discover the falsification of data. And with the appearance of Copernicus on the international scientific arena, the astronomical teaching of Ptolemy became completely irrelevant. And only for some time he developed the theory of geocentrism, supporting the ancient scientist in his beliefs. However, the geocentric system of the universe was soon refuted by other scientists.
Personal life
No reliable information has been preserved about Claudius’s marital status, as well as the presence or absence of children. But it is known for sure that the scientist had followers and assistants who helped him make great discoveries in science. Ptolemy dedicated the astronomical book “Almagest” to Sir, but his identity has not been established, who he was as a scientist and whether he had anything to do with his research or astronomy is generally unknown.
The same treatise mentions the mathematician Theon, whose data Claudius used in astronomical calculations, but whether Theon was Ptolemy’s teacher or a colleague is also unknown.
A number of researchers suggest that we are talking about Theon of Smyrna, a philosopher and follower who also studied the starry sky and compiled a primitive map of the night sky.
Claudius also had certain personal relationships with his employees scientific library in Alexandria of Egypt, since he had free access to the necessary literature. IN historical sources At the beginning of our era, Claudius was associated with the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, but modern researchers tend to consider this a coincidence.
Death of Ptolemy
The circumstances and date of the scientist’s death, like all the facts of his biography, remain a mystery to this day. The opinion of most researchers is that the date of death of Claudius should be considered 165 AD.
According to archival information, during this period a plague epidemic raged across the countries of Africa and Eurasia, of which Ptolemy may have become a victim. But even three thousand years after death, the scientist continues to live in his works and benefit his descendants.
Bibliography
- "Canopic Inscription"
- "Handy tables"
- "Planetary Hypotheses"
- "Phases of the Fixed Stars"
- "Analemma"
- "Planispherium"
- "The Four Books"
- "Geography"
- "Optics"
- "Harmonics"
- "On the ability to judge and make decisions"
- "Fetus"
- "Gravities" and "Elements"
Hello dear readers of the blog about the planet! In this article I want to tell you about Claudius Ptolemy, who is the author interesting books in the field of geography and more, as well as about what kind of person he was.
Claudius Ptolemy was born around 90 BC. e. – died around 160 BC. e. This is a famous ancient geographer and astronomer. The geocentric theory of the universe, which is partly considered Ptolemaic, acquired its final form thanks to Ptolemy.
Almost nothing is known about his place and date of birth and death, as well as about his origin. "Geography" and "Almagest" are the most outstanding works of Ptolemy. They became the highest achievement of ancient science in the branches of geography and astronomy.
The works of Ptolemy were considered so perfect that they reigned in science for 1400 years. During all this time, not a single serious amendment was made to Geography.
Ptolemy cannot be called a brilliant geographer, astronomer or mathematician, even despite his most respectful authority in all the science of antiquity.
His talent was in the ability to collect together all the results of the research of his predecessors and use them to clarify his own observations and present everything as a logical and complete system, laid out in a clear and high-quality form.
Ptolemy's "Geography" occupied an equally significant place in the field geographical knowledge, like the Almagest in astronomy. It was believed that this work was practically free of errors, and that it contained a complete exposition of the subject.
But “Geography” is certainly inferior to “Almagest” as a scientific treatise. The theoretical achievements in Geography border on serious shortcomings during attempts to implement them in practice.
Ptolemy begins with a clear presentation of cartographic methods - the determination of astronomical longitude and latitude and methods for depicting spherical surfaces on a plane.
Then, he moves on to the main part of his treatise, which is based on approximate calculations of explorers and sailors.
Consider this work scientific research erroneous, even though Ptolemy presents the subject of his research in mathematical form, and this work of his contains a significant list of more than 8,000 names, islands and cities.
Precisely because theoretical aspects The cartographies in this book are laid out, in general, well, we can be sure: Ptolemy knew that in his time the real places were not yet precisely defined.
Ptolemy, in his book Geography, discusses the reliability of determining the relative positions of points on using astronomical methods and measuring the distances traveled by travelers.
He acknowledges that astronomical methods are more reliable, but also points out that there is no other data for most places other than the calculations of travelers. Ptolemy considers mutual control of astronomical and ground-based methods more reliable.
Afterwards, he gives clear instructions regarding the representation of the world on a sphere, which is very similar to a modern globe, as well as on a flat surface using an improved spherical projection or a conical projection.
Almost entirely consist of a list of names of different places with their coordinates, the remaining 7 books. There are many errors in Ptolemy's atlas because most of data was obtained by travelers.
The radius of the globe that was calculated was reduced by more than a quarter by Posidonius, and Ptolemy used this reduced value. Also Prime Meridian it goes wrong - through the Canary Islands.
Travelers exaggerated the size, and because of this it turned out that the world that was known at that time extended more than 180° (and in fact 130°).
China on his map was on the 180th meridian. It is a giant landmass stretching from the top of his map to the equator. From all this it turned out that even further, to where they are now depicting Pacific Ocean, stretches an unknown part of the Asian continent.
This is exactly how Ptolemy imagined the Earth, a sphere that, in comparison with the current size and land cover, which occupies 2/3 of the Northern Hemisphere, was reduced by a quarter.
According to which the central place in the Universe is occupied by the planet Earth, which remains motionless. The Moon, the Sun, all the stars and planets are already gathering around her. Was first formulated in Ancient Greece. It became the basis for ancient and medieval cosmology and astronomy. An alternative later became the heliocentric system of the world, which became the basis for the current
The emergence of geocentrism
The Ptolemaic system has been considered fundamental to all scientists for many centuries. The Earth has been considered the center of the universe since ancient times. It was assumed that there was a central axis of the Universe, and that the Earth was kept from falling by some kind of support.
Ancient people believed that it was some kind of mythical giant creature, such as an elephant, a turtle or several whales. Thales of Miletus, considered the father of philosophy, suggested that such a natural support could be the world ocean itself. Some have suggested that the Earth, located at the center of space, does not need to move in any direction, it simply rests in the very center of the Universe without any support.
World system
Claudius Ptolemy sought to give his own explanation for all the visible movements of the planets and other celestial bodies. The main problem was due to the fact that all observations were carried out at that time exclusively from the surface of the Earth, because of this it was impossible to reliably determine whether our planet was in motion or not.
In this regard, ancient astronomers had two theories. According to one of them, the Earth is at the center of the Universe and remains motionless. Mostly the theory was based on personal impressions and observations. And according to the second version, which relied solely on speculative conclusions, the Earth rotates around its own axis and moves around the Sun, which is the center of the whole world. However, this fact clearly contradicted existing opinions and religious views. That is why the second point of view did not receive mathematical justification; for many centuries in astronomy the opinion about the immobility of the Earth was established.
Works of an astronomer
Ptolemy's book entitled "The Great Construction" summarized and outlined the basic ideas of ancient astronomers about the structure of the Universe. The Arabic translation of this work has become widespread. It is known as "Almagest". Ptolemy based his theory on four main assumptions.
The Earth is located directly in the center of the Universe and is motionless; all celestial bodies move around it in circles at a constant speed, that is, evenly.
The Ptolemaic system is usually called geocentric. In a simplified form, it is described as follows: the planets move in circles with uniform speed. At the common center of everything is the motionless Earth. The Moon and the Sun rotate around the Earth without epicycles, but according to deferents that lie inside the sphere, and “fixed” stars remain on the surface.
The daily movement of any of the luminaries was explained by Claudius Ptolemy by the rotation of the entire Universe around the motionless Earth.
Planetary movement
It is interesting that for each of the planets the scientist selected the sizes of the radii of the deferent and epicycle, as well as the speed of their movement. This could only be done if certain conditions were met. For example, Ptolemy took it for granted that the centers of all epicycles of the lower planets are located in a certain direction from the Sun, and the radii of the epicycles of the upper planets in the same direction are parallel.
As a result, the direction to the Sun in the Ptolemaic system became predominant. It was also concluded that the orbital periods of the corresponding planets are equal to the same stellar periods. All this in Ptolemy's theory meant that the world system includes the most important features of the actual and real movements of the planets. They were fully revealed much later by another brilliant astronomer, Copernicus.
One of the important issues within the framework of this theory was the need to calculate the distance, how many kilometers from the Earth to the Moon. It has now been reliably established that it is 384,400 kilometers.
Merit of Ptolemy
Ptolemy's main merit was that he was able to give a full and comprehensive explanation of the visible movements of the planets, and also made it possible to calculate their position for the future with an accuracy that would correspond to observations made with the naked eye. As a result, although the theory itself was fundamentally wrong, it did not raise serious objections, and any attempts to contradict it were immediately harshly suppressed by the Christian Church.
Over time, serious disagreements were discovered between theory and observations, which arose as accuracy increased. They were finally eliminated only by significantly complicating the optical system. For example, certain irregularities in the apparent motion of the planets, which were discovered as a result of later observations, were explained by the fact that it was not the planet itself that revolved around the center of the first epicycle, but the so-called center of the second epicycle. But the celestial body moves along its circumference.
If this construction turned out to be insufficient, additional epicycles were introduced until the position of the planet on the circle correlated with observational data. As a result, at the beginning of the 16th century, the system developed by Ptolemy turned out to be so complex that it did not meet the requirements for astronomical observations in practice. First of all, this concerned navigation. New methods for calculating the motion of planets were required, which should have become simpler. They were developed by Nicolaus Copernicus, who laid the foundation for a new astronomy on which the modern science.
Aristotle's ideas
Aristotle's geocentric world system was also popular. It consisted in the postulate that the Earth is a heavy body for the Universe.
As practice has shown, all heavy bodies fall vertically, as they are in motion towards the center of the world. The earth itself was located in the center. On this basis, Aristotle refuted the orbital motion of the planet, coming to the conclusion that it leads to the parallactic displacement of stars. He sought to calculate how far from the Earth to the Moon, managing to achieve only approximate calculations.
Biography of Ptolemy
Ptolemy was born around 100 AD. The main sources of information about the scientist’s biography are his own compositions, which modern researchers have managed to build into chronological order through cross-referencing.
Fragmentary information about his fate can also be gleaned from the works of Byzantine authors. But it should be noted that this is unreliable information and not trustworthy. It is believed that he owes his wide and versatile erudition to the active use of volumes stored in the Library of Alexandria.
Works of the scientist
Ptolemy's main works were related to astronomy, but he also left his mark on other scientific fields. In particular, in mathematics, he derived Ptolemy's theorem and inequality, based on the theory of the product of the diagonals of a quadrilateral inscribed in a circle.
Five books make up his treatise on optics. In it, he describes the nature of vision, examines all possible aspects of perception, describes the properties of mirrors and the laws of reflection, and discusses For the first time in world science, a detailed and fairly accurate description of atmospheric refraction is given.
Many people know Ptolemy as a talented geographer. In eight books, he sets out in detail the knowledge inherent in man of the ancient world. It was he who laid the foundations of cartography and mathematical geography. He published the coordinates of eight thousand points located from Egypt to Scandinavia and from Indochina to the Atlantic Ocean.
The first global natural science revolution, which transformed astronomy, cosmology and physics, was the creation of a consistent doctrine of the geocentric system of the world. This teaching was started by the ancient Greek scientist Anaximander, who created in the 6th century. BC. a rather harmonious system of ring world orders. However, a consistent geocentric system was developed in the 4th century. BC. the greatest scientist and philosopher of antiquity, Aristotle, and then, in the 1st century. mathematically substantiated by Ptolemy. The geocentric system of the world is usually called the Ptolemaic system, and the natural scientific revolution is called the Aristotelian one.
The great astronomer and mathematician Claudius Ptolemy (87 - 165) chose the geocentric model of the World. He completed the mathematical description of the movements of celestial bodies begun by Hipparchus and brilliantly completed Plato’s program - “with the help of uniform and regular circular movements he saved the phenomena represented by the planets.” He tried to explain the structure of the Universe, taking into account the apparent complexity of the movements of the planets. Considering the Earth to be spherical, and its dimensions are insignificant compared to the distance to the planets and especially stars. Ptolemy, however, following Aristotle, argued that the Earth is the motionless center of the Universe. The Ptolemaic world system is based on four postulates: I. The Earth is at the center of the Universe. II. The earth is motionless. III. All celestial bodies move around the Earth. IV. The movement of celestial bodies occurs in circles at a constant speed, i.e. uniformly.
Since Ptolemy considered the Earth to be the center of the Universe, his world system was called geocentric. Around the earth, according to Ptolemy, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and stars move (in order of distance from the Earth). But if the movement of the Moon, Sun, and stars is circular, then the movement of the planets is much more complicated. Each of the planets, according to Ptolemy, does not move around the Earth, but around a certain point. This point, in turn, moves in a circle, in the center of which is the Earth. Ptolemy called the circle described by the planet around a moving point an epicycle, and the circle along which a point moves near the Earth was called a deferent. Ptolemy built a geocentric model of the World (in fact, a model of the solar system), which made it possible to explain all the observed features of the movement of the planets, the Sun and the Moon, and most importantly, became a powerful tool for predicting the positions of these celestial bodies. Ptolemy's main work is "Great Mathematical Construction".
11. The main features of the medieval picture of the world.
The Middle Ages covers a thousand-year period of history (V-XIV centuries), divided into two stages - the early Middle Ages (V-X1 centuries) and the classical Middle Ages (XII-XIV centuries). The main feature of the spiritual culture of the Middle Ages was the dominance of the Christian religion. It expressed man’s desire for a spiritual, pure life. Belief in one omnipotent and all-good God, immeasurable in his love for man. Evidence of this love is manifested in the Incarnation, or God's acceptance of man. appearance, in God's bearing of suffering and death for the sake of the future salvation of man for eternal life. The salvation of man is seen in his spiritual renewal and through overcoming dependence on temporary natural existence. All this determined the basic features of the medieval worldview:
1) monotheism - belief in one God;
2) theocentrism - recognition of the central position of God in the Universe as the Creator of everything that exists;
3) creationism - belief in the creation of the world by God out of nothing;
4) anthropocentrism - establishing the central position of man in the world created by God.
Fear of retribution for sins becomes the driving motive for accepting Christianity. In cultural terms, the meaning of these ideas lies in the affirmation of the soul as the highest earthly value, cat. more important than material goods. Every soul is worthy of love, so love should become the basis of humanity. relationships. Love for each other does not presuppose anything other than love itself, therefore it is not done under coercion, but freely. Freedom is understood as the highest spiritual value, most manifested in faith. Theatrical art was developing, initially taking shape in the form of a church theater (11th century), on the stages of which dramatic liturgies and mysteries were played, then in the form of secular theater in all the variety of genre forms: farce, mystery, miracle, morality play.
12. Heliocentric system of Copernicus. Kepler's laws .
In the heliocentric system of Copernicus, for the first time it became possible to calculate real proportions solar system, using the radius of the earth's orbit as an astronomical unit. Copernicus realized that if we look at the planets while on a moving Earth, then the planets, in addition to moving in their orbits, receive additional circular motion. From Earth it will be visible in the form of an epicycle. The size of the epicycle is equal to the diameter of the orbit of our planet. Therefore, the farther a planet is from us, the smaller its epicycle will seem, and its angular dimensions can be used to judge its distance.
In the Copernican system, “... the sequence and magnitude of the luminaries, all the spheres and even the sky itself will be so connected that nothing can be rearranged in any part without causing confusion in the remaining parts and throughout the entire Universe.”
It would seem that the job is done, the new hypothesis of the structure of the world is ready, all that remains is to publish it. But the essay “On the rotations of celestial bodies. Six books” took more than 20 years of hard work. This book contains descriptions of astronomical instruments, as well as a new catalog of fixed stars, more accurate than Ptolemy's. It deals with the apparent motion of the Sun, Moon and planets. Since Copernicus used only circular uniform motions, he had to spend a lot of effort searching for ratios of the size of the system that would describe the observed movements of the luminaries. After all his efforts, his heliocentric system turned out to be not much more accurate than the Ptolemaic one. Only Kepler and Newton managed to make it accurate.
In 1506 Copernicus, having been educated for 10 years, formalized his ideas, born during the years of study and wandering, in the form of a scientific theory - the heliocentric system of the World. In this system, Copernicus reduced the Earth to the role of an ordinary planet, he placed the Sun in the center of the system, and all the planets, together with the Earth, moved around the Sun in circular orbits. For 16 years, Copernicus carried out astronomical observations of the Sun, stars and planets, and finally, on the eve of his sixtieth birthday, he completed his life’s work, “On the Rotations of the Celestial Spheres.”
The enormous significance of the heliocentric system of the World created by Copernicus was discovered after Kepler discovered the true laws of elliptical motion of planets, and I. Newton based on them - the law universal gravity; . At present, the teachings of Copernicus have not lost their significance because it revealed the true picture of the World and made a revolutionary revolution “in the development of a system of scientific worldview.”
In Newton's formulation, Kepler's laws sound like this:
Kepler's first law.
-Each planet Sunny systems contacts by ellipse , in one of the focuses of which is Sun .
-Kepler's second law. Each planet moves in a plane passing through the center of the Sun, and in equal times the radius vector connecting the Sun and the planet sweeps out sectors of equal area.
-Kepler's third law. The squares of the periods of revolution of the planets around the Sun are related as the cubes of the semimajor axes of the planets' orbits.
Biography of Claudius Ptolemy - a scientist from Ancient Greece who, using the exact science of mathematics, developed a scientific theory of the movement of celestial bodies around our Earth. Ptolemy lived and worked in Alexandria of Egypt in the period 127-151. Our planet Earth was considered motionless in the minds of ancient scientists. This theory and the theory of the movement of the only natural satellite of the Earth - the Moon and the luminary - the Sun, were part of the Ptolemaic system of the world.
Significant role in world history development of sciences, the primacy undoubtedly belongs to Claudius Ptolemy. The scientific works of the mysterious scientist greatly influenced the formation of mysterious astronomy and natural and mathematical sciences. Claudius Ptolemy owns outstanding works on the main scientific trends of ancient natural science.
"Almagest"
The most famous of them is a scientific work that influenced the development and promotion of the science of astronomy, called by specialists “Almagest”.
“Almagest” in ancient times was equated to the “Bible”; it describes all the main paths in science. Ptolemy's scientific work was originally titled "Mathematical Work in 13 Books." The Almagest contains thirteen books. The author himself divided the creation into books, and the division into chapters occurred much later. "Almagest" plays the role of a textbook on the theory of astronomy. It is intended for an already formed reader who is familiar with the works of Euclid, spherics and logistics. The theory of the movement of the planets of the solar system, described in the Almagest, is the scientific “child” of Ptolemy himself. Over the centuries, with changes in the views of his contemporaries, the scientific work of Ptolemy took first place in the ancient world of science. The great uniqueness of the creation ensured longevity and respect from pundits. For many centuries, the promising “Almagest” was an ideal example of a purely scientific approach to performing all kinds of difficult tasks in astronomy. Without it, it is impossible to imagine the history of the development of the science of stars - astronomy in Persia, India, Arab countries and the old woman - Europe in the Middle Ages.
The famous work of Copernicus “On Rotations,” which became the basis of modern astronomy, its foundation and stronghold, was in many ways a continuation of the “Almagest.” Claudius paid much attention to issues of astronomy; after the Almagest, he wrote many other scientific works.
"Planetary Hypotheses"
In “Planetary Hypotheses,” Claudius presented an undeniable theory of the movement of planetary bodies as a single living organism within the boundaries of the geocentric world system he adopted. “Planetary Hypotheses” is a small work, but it is of great importance in the history of the development of astronomy. It consists of two books. The work is dedicated full description astronomical system as a single living organism.
"Tables at hand" and "Quadrbooks"
He created “Tables at Hand” with instructions that scientists and astronomers use to this day.
An amazing treatise where Claudius Ptolemy revealed astronomical and astrological scientific issues. The treatise made it possible to open the door to the depths of understanding and creation of the Universe. "Handy tables" are greatest book of its time. This work by the author consists of many tables that are designed to accurately find the positions of celestial bodies. A small number of Ptolemy's works are lost in time and are known only through their titles. Numerous studies of the natural and mathematical sciences give reason to contemporaries to consider Ptolemy one of the most prominent scientists, famous history. Worldwide fame, and most importantly, the works of Claudius have always been used as a storehouse of scientific knowledge that has not aged in time. Ptolemy's broad outlook and his non-typical, generalizing and systematizing mindset, and the author's high skill in presenting scientific postulates are unparalleled. From this point of view, the scientific works of Ptolemy and, of course, the Almagest became an ideal work for many scientists of different generations.
Ptolemy is the author of many other works on astronomy, astrology, geography, optics, music, etc., which were widely known during antiquity and the Middle Ages. An example can be given: “The Canopic Inscription”, “Tables at Hand”, “Planetary Hypotheses”, “Phases”, “Analemma”, “Planispherium”, “Quetruch”, “Geography”, “Optics”, “Harmonics”, etc.
"Canopic Inscription"
The “Canopic Inscription” contains a list of all possible parameters of Ptolemy’s astronomical system, which was depicted on a stele dedicated to the Savior God. A study of the book “The Canopic Inscription” has proven that it was written much earlier than the world-famous “Almagest”.
"Phases of the Fixed Stars"
“Phases of the Fixed Stars” is not large-scale scientific work Claudius Ptolemy, is dedicated to weather predictions on the planet, which are based on one of the first methods of meteorology - observing the dates of synodic phenomena of stars in the Universe.
"Analemma"
Another treatise “Analemma”, where the most complex methods of work in astronomy are described to the reader in an accessible form.
"Planispherium"
“Planispherium” is a small creation of Ptolemy, which reveals the theory of stereographic projection in practice.
"The Four Books"
The Quadripartite is the main manuscript on Ptolemy's astrology, known to scientists under the second Latin name Quadripartitum.
During the life of Ptolemy, belief in astrology was very widespread among the inhabitants. Ptolemy was subject to his era. He perceived astrology as an obligatory addition to astronomy. Astrology, as always, predicts cataclysms and all kinds of events on our planet, taking into account the influence of the luminaries of the sky; astronomy provides information about the positions of stars, which is needed to make certain predictions. Ptolemy did not believe in fate; The scientist considered the influence of the celestial bodies to be only one of various factors determining events on our planet.
The significance of Ptolemy's works
The works of Ptolemy occupy a leading place in the development of the science of astronomy. The significance of Claudius for her was immediately appreciated by her contemporaries. A huge amount of scientific literature is associated with the incredible work “Almagest”.
Based on the works of Ptolemy, contemporaries dreamed of improving or changing their works in the field of science heavenly bodies. But all of the above led to the fact that Copernicus created his teaching, and it was based on the work of Claudius Ptolemy.
Over time, the importance of Ptolemy's works is not downplayed, but even increases. The talented Claudius Ptolemy based his scientific discoveries contributed the results of his predecessors.
In the historical literature, unfortunately, there is no information about the biography and place of birth of the famous scientist. We can only guess and fantasize about the life events of the astronomer - the hero.