The fault, dear Brutus,
Is not in our stars,
But in ourselves...
Is not in our stars,
But in ourselves...
Julius Caesar
(I, ii, 140–141)
(I, ii, 140–141)
An Ancient Struggle to Exalt the Earth
Occasionally, in trying to understand something, we can be
our own worst enemy. We may start off tackling the issue
in what seems to be the most obvious or natural way, but
end up leading ourselves down a difficult path. No matter
how hard we try, we just can't seem to figure it out.
Backing up, and changing perspectives may make the problem
almost trivial. This is just what happened when humans
first tried to understand the motion of the Sun, Moon, and
planets across the sky.
When the Greek astronomer Ptolemy approached this issue,
he believed that the Earth ought to hold a privileged
place in the cosmos, so he put it at the center of his
system, and had the heavenly bodies move basically on
circles centered on the Earth. Unfortunately, this didn't
even come close to accounting for the actual observed
motions, so Ptolemy
added epicycles. An epicycle is a
second circle with its center moving along the main
circle. These strange orbits turned out to describe the
motion of the Sun, Moon, and planets fairly well.
Of course, "fairly well" is not well enough for astronomers. To get better accuracy, some adjustments needed to be made to Ptolemy's system. Since Ptolemy had started down the path of adding epicycles, astronomers simply continued down this path; they added epicycles upon epicycles. Eventually, though, planets were supposed to be following epicycles upon epicycles upon epicycles, and the system became very complicated and awkward.
Nearly a millennium and a half later, the Polish astronomer Copernicus came along and realized that there is nothing quite so special about the Earth. He decided to put the Sun at the center of the system Ptolemy had started. When he did this, he found that the system was much easier to describe. The Sun simply stays where it is, and the planets—including Earth—revolve around it. The Moon, of course, revolved around the Earth, but no other epicycles were necessary. The circles were later stretched slightly into ellipses, giving a highly accurate description of motions around the Sun. By changing his perspective a little, Copernicus got rid of the epicycles, and the problem became much easier to deal with.
Interestingly, we now know that it is possible to describe
the motion of everything in the Solar System almost
perfectly by using a slightly modified version of
Ptolemy's system. If we change the circles to ellipses,
let the ellipses rotate, and let the planets change speed,
we again have a description of how the Solar System works
which is as accurate as Copernicus's model. The only
problem is that this is a very complicated
system—one with which neither Ptolemy nor even
Copernicus was ready to work.
Fundamentally, though, it doesn't matter if we find the Earth-centered system complicated; it still works. The fact that it is hard to use doesn't make it wrong. We could even go so far as to say that, in this sense, the planets do revolve around the Earth, and not the Sun! Of course, we immediately realize that any statement like this, whether Earth-centered or Sun-centered, is irrelevant. Deciding which bodies revolve around which is just a matter of viewpoint. From the Sun's viewpoint, everything is revolving around it. From the our viewpoint on the Earth, we might as well say that everything is revolving around us.
The crucial point is that Nature doesn't care what viewpoint we take; it just goes on revolving like it always has. This problem caused—and continues to cause—great confusion among physicists. Einstein's great insight was to realize that it's all relative. Literally!
Developing this line of thought, Einstein saw that he should write down laws of physics that were independent of which perspective a physicist takes, because these are the laws that Nature would obey. He went further, however. The change of perspective in this solar system problem is just a change in position. Einstein realized that there is another type of viewpoint that should be treated equally.
Ptolemy's simple geocentric model of the Solar System.
Everything orbits the Earth; the Sun can be found in
the fourth ring.
An epicycle describes something moving in a circle, whose center is moving on another—usually larger—circle. Epicycles were used to understand (imperfectly) how planets move around the sun.
Of course, "fairly well" is not well enough for astronomers. To get better accuracy, some adjustments needed to be made to Ptolemy's system. Since Ptolemy had started down the path of adding epicycles, astronomers simply continued down this path; they added epicycles upon epicycles. Eventually, though, planets were supposed to be following epicycles upon epicycles upon epicycles, and the system became very complicated and awkward.
Nearly a millennium and a half later, the Polish astronomer Copernicus came along and realized that there is nothing quite so special about the Earth. He decided to put the Sun at the center of the system Ptolemy had started. When he did this, he found that the system was much easier to describe. The Sun simply stays where it is, and the planets—including Earth—revolve around it. The Moon, of course, revolved around the Earth, but no other epicycles were necessary. The circles were later stretched slightly into ellipses, giving a highly accurate description of motions around the Sun. By changing his perspective a little, Copernicus got rid of the epicycles, and the problem became much easier to deal with.
Copernicus's heliocentric model of the Solar System.
The Earth is found in the third ring, with the Moon
orbiting it. Note that Jupiter is surrounded by the
four moons known at the time—the so-called
“Galilean moons.”
Fundamentally, though, it doesn't matter if we find the Earth-centered system complicated; it still works. The fact that it is hard to use doesn't make it wrong. We could even go so far as to say that, in this sense, the planets do revolve around the Earth, and not the Sun! Of course, we immediately realize that any statement like this, whether Earth-centered or Sun-centered, is irrelevant. Deciding which bodies revolve around which is just a matter of viewpoint. From the Sun's viewpoint, everything is revolving around it. From the our viewpoint on the Earth, we might as well say that everything is revolving around us.
The crucial point is that Nature doesn't care what viewpoint we take; it just goes on revolving like it always has. This problem caused—and continues to cause—great confusion among physicists. Einstein's great insight was to realize that it's all relative. Literally!
Developing this line of thought, Einstein saw that he should write down laws of physics that were independent of which perspective a physicist takes, because these are the laws that Nature would obey. He went further, however. The change of perspective in this solar system problem is just a change in position. Einstein realized that there is another type of viewpoint that should be treated equally.
