Sublunary sphere

In Aristotelian physics and Greek astronomy, the sublunary sphere is the region of the geocentric cosmos below the Moon, consisting of the four classical elements: earth, water, air, and fire. The sublunary sphere was the realm of changing nature. Beginning with the Moon, up to the limits of the universe, everything (to classical astronomy) was permanent, regular and unchanging—the region of aether where the planets and stars are located. Only in the sublunary sphere did the powers of physics hold sway. Plato and Aristotle helped to formulate the original theory of a sublunary sphere in antiquity, the idea usually going hand in hand with geocentrism and the concept of a spherical Earth. Avicenna carried forward into the Middle Ages the Aristotelian idea of generation and corruption being limited to the sublunary sphere. Medieval scholastics like Thomas Aquinas, who charted the division between celestial and sublunary spheres in his work Summa Theologica, also drew on Cicero and Lucan for an awareness of the great frontier between Nature and Sky, sublunary and aetheric spheres. The result for medieval/Renaissance mentalities was a pervasive awareness of the existence, at the Moon, of what C.S. Lewis called 'this "great divide"...from aether to air, from 'heaven' to 'nature', from the realm of gods (or angels) to that of daemons, from the realm of necessity to that of contingence, from the incorruptible to the corruptible" However, the theories of Copernicus began to challenge the sublunary/aether distinction. In their wake, Tycho Brahe's observations of a new star (nova) and of comets in the supposedly unchanging heavens further undermined the Aristotelian view.R. Curley, Scientists and Inventors of the Renaissance (2012) p. 6-8 Thomas Kuhn saw scientists' new ability to see change in the 'incorruptible' heavens as a classic example of the new possibilities opened up by a paradigm shift. Dante envisaged Mt Purgatory as being so high that it reached above the sublunary sphere, so that “These slopes are free from every natural change”.

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Aristotelian physics

Aristotelian physics is the form of natural science or natural philosophy described in the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC). In his work Physics, Aristotle intended to establish general principles of change that govern all natural bodies, both living and inanimate, celestial and terrestrial including all motion (change with respect to place), quantitative change (change with respect to size or number), qualitative change, and substantial change ("coming to be" [coming into existence, 'generation'] or "passing away" [no longer existing, 'corruption']).

On the Heavens

On the Heavens (Greek: Περὶ οὐρανοῦ; Latin: De Caelo or De Caelo et Mundo) is Aristotle's chief cosmological treatise: written in 350 BC, it contains his astronomical theory and his ideas on the concrete workings of the terrestrial world. It should not be confused with the spurious work On the Universe (De mundo, also known as On the Cosmos). This work is significant as one of the defining pillars of the Aristotelian worldview, a school of philosophy that dominated intellectual thinking for almost two millennia.

Earth (classical element)

Earth is one of the classical elements, in some systems being one of the four along with air, fire, and water. Earth is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the terrestrial world. Due to the hero cults, and chthonic underworld deities, the element of earth is also associated with the sensual aspects of both life and death in later occultism. Empedocles of Acragas (c. 495 – c.

Epicyclic Curves in Astronomy MATH-126: Geometry for architects II

Explores epicyclic curves in astronomy, from ancient Greeks to Kepler, discussing Ptolemy's Almagest and Copernicus' heliocentric system.