CanterburyTerrier t1_j52xhl1 wrote
Reply to comment by MrWrock in Ancient humans and their early depictions of the universe: “It is no exaggeration to say that astronomy has existed as an exact science for more than five millennia,” writes the late science historian John North. by clayt6
Yes! Their walk across the zodiac was definitely intriguing to our ancestors. However, the Planets, as well, seemed to have a discernible pattern that could be tracked. So, they were mostly dependable and unchanging in their motion.
The Planets' stubborn refusal to be where they were supposed to be is one of the great catalysts of the scientific revolution. Because they moved in ellipses, Kepler, I think, was the first to produce math that would table them correctly.
hmountain t1_j543da7 wrote
Kepler was several hundred years later than Shen Kuo of china who described “willow leaf” shaped motion of planets and retrograde motion in the 11th century AD.
soundoftheunheard t1_j54fcfe wrote
I don’t think Shen Kuo’s willow leaf explanation (where traversing the “point” is part of the explanatory power and not mathematically explained) of retrograde motion in a geocentric model is in the same realm as Kepler producing the math showing elliptic orbits in a heliocentric model.
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