ASTR 101 Lecture 7: Lecture 7:The Size, Shape, and Motion of the Earth
1 Oct 2016
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Spinning objects tend to maintain their orientation (provides stability) This same idea is followed by the spinning of the earth and its angular moment. The axis of the earth points close to polaris, and will do so for many centuries. How the earth was determined to be round. 1. -the behavior of the stars was what helped aristotle to determine that the world is round. When aristotle was in khartoum, he noticed that polaris was lower on the horizon than when he as in athens. On ground level with looking at ships, they could only see the top of the ship, however when 12m higher on a cliff, they were able to see more of the ship. This would then imply that the surface would have had to been round. 1. - the earth"s shadow in a lunar eclipse. The edge of the earth"s shadow was always round when against the lunar eclipse.
