h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A59770902 - Galileo Galilei – Father of Modern Science

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I think your book forgot Friar John of Worcester on 8 December, 1128, http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/sunspots/jwex.jpg
and the ancient Chinese, who previously documented sunspots

"Galileo was one of the first scientists to arrive at conclusions from observation and practical experimentation, whereas his predecessors (like Aristotle) believed that problems could be resolved solely by reasoning."

-- this is often stated in descriptions of the Heliocentric vs Geocentric theories, but it's not entirely true.

The "Geostationary Model" of the solar system was devised by Ptolemy who was a practical astronomer. His book in which he sets forth the theories is based on observations that he and others before him did on the stars and includes such things as instructions on how to make measuring devices for measuring the positions of the stars. This was not pure logic ignoring the facts. It was logical reasoning based on the facts. And Ptolemy's model was in fact a much better one than that of Galileo and Copernicus, in that it predicted the positions of the planets more accurately, which is what it was intended to do. Galileo and Copernicus, because they assumed the planets went around the sun in circles, which they don't, were not very accurate, even if they were close to the truth.

Ptolemy assumed the planets went around the Earth in circles going around circles going around circles, which in fact they do, so his model was actually more accurate, although not as simple a way of talking about the solar system.

"the geocentric view as taught by the Bible" -- this is misleading. The geocentric was taught by the ancient Greek philosophers. Some parts of the Bible seemed to go along with this theory adding weight to its acceptance by the Church, such as the fact that some prophet, I can't remember which one, at God's command, stopped the sun in the sky. He couldn't have done this if the Earth was moving and the sun was stationary. But the Catholic Church never believed that the Bible was the literal truth, so it was always open to interpretation. (The belief that the Bible was the literal truth came later, with some branches of Protestantism).

"Changing the order of things in the heavens was considered blasphemous (showing disrespect or scorn for God) because the Church believed God made the heavens with Earth at the centre." -- uh, I don't think so. As I said earlier, the Church had no problem with new theories as long as they were backed up with evidence. There was a whole branch of the Church, the Jesuits, whose purpose in life was to investigate things and to increase our understanding of the world. One of these, in fact, was the first to observe sunspots.

"the lunar crater Galilaei" -- is it really spelt like that?

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According to http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/lunarform/cratall.html and Wiki it is

I'll read the rest of your posting later, but I have to go out now

updated

"his only good remaining eye" suggests that he started out with three or four!

That originally started out as "his one good remaining eye" but I didn't think that sounded right. It sounds better than suggesting that he started out with three or four though

What should I change that to?

his remaining good eye

I've heard of people with glasses referred to as four eyes, but never in this situation. It seems like someone is reading into the sentence something that is not there. If I were to refer to a bowl of apples and say the "one bad apple in the bowl" It wouldn't really imply how many apples were there.

one phrase I take issue with is where it says
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The Old testament begins "In the Beginning God created the heavens and the Earth" but it was an interpretation,not the text itself, that placed the earth at the centre.
So the sentence should read: Interpretations of the Bible (Old Testament) imply that God made the heavens with the Earth at the centre.

I agree.

done

Any more comments here?

nothing from me.

Thank you Shagbark

mistletoe

Best time of the year,

Just a few small changes, and then this will be ready, in my opinion.

You could do something about this cumbersome phrase:

improvements eventually improved later ones

King Phillip of Spain should have only one "l".

There should be a full stop after footnote 5.

continued to experiment; producing -- change semicolon to comma

"The Church believed that science had shown that the Earth was in the centre. Ptolemy's book was based on careful observations and was very accurate at predicting the positions of the planets."

You spring "Ptolemy's book" on the reader without having mentioned it before. You could rephrase this as:

"The Church believed that science had shown that the Earth was in the centre. The ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy had perfected the geocentric theory, based on careful observations, and it was very accurate at predicting the positions of the planets.

"who was portrayed as an idiot in his book for not agreeing with him" -->
"who was portrayed as an idiot in the book for not agreeing with Galileo"

He also wrote another, and perhaps his greatest treatise -- add a comma after greatest or remove the one after another, which I would prefer as there would be too many commas in the sentence, making it appear cluttered.