Talk:Heliocentrism

No documentary evidence to prove it

"The possibility that Copernicus independently developed the Tusi couple remains open, since no researcher has yet proven that he knew about Tusi's work or the Maragha school" I think there is a contention built up against that notion. 1 2 3Faro0485 (talk) 11:25, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

Two points:

• First, the three texts you cite above merely assert a technical commonality between Copernicus's mathematical device and the Tusi couple, they do not provide any evidence that Copernicus had access to the texts of the Maragha school or that of al-Tusi. Interestingly, Neugebauer, HAMA, p. 1035, a text cited by Saliba in your first source, appears to attribute the Tusi couple and the Copernicus device to Proclus: "Copernicus quotes Proclus for his theorem in the original version, but he uses it (in the theory of Mercury) in the expanded form ... which is also found in Ṭūsī."
• Second, the entire discussion of the Tusi couple and the possible knowledge of it by Copernicus is really irrelevant to a discussion of heliocentrism, which is the topic of this article. It may be significant that much of this marginal discussion was added [1] [2] [3] to this article by the problematic blocked editor, Jagged 85, noted for his misuse of sources. --SteveMcCluskey (talk) 21:01, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

I've just Boldly deleted most of the discussion of the Tusi couple. Feel free to edit as appropriate. SteveMcCluskey (talk) 16:43, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Copernicus model would have worked

Copernicus' basic intent was to eliminate the epicycles that were an important element of Ptolemy's empirical mathematical model. Copernicus' empirical model would have worked if the planetary orbits had been circular as assumed. Copernicus ran up against a new bug-a-boo, however: Elliptic orbits, which required as many if not more epicycles to get the curve fits right. In that respect Copernicus' efforts were a failure. Heliocentrism was the germ of an idea, however, that ultimately panned out. Tycho's model was an also-ran. Ptolemy's model worked just fine and can still be used today to compute rough estimates of planetary positions. To send probes to the planets, however, you need Newtonian physics with a tinge of Einstein to be really accurate. Virgil H. Soule (talk) 16:32, 26 December 2013 (UTC)

The section on the Copernican Revolution should be made briefer for better overview

The section on the Copernican Revolution seems larger than the separate article on the Copernican Revolution. It should be made briefer, and any relevant information that is here that is not already in the separate article should be integrated into the separate article. DanielDemaret (talk) 11:32, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Reference

The reference to Melanchthon is quoted from Bruce T. Moran, The Universe of Philip Melanchthon: Criticism and Use of the Copernican Theory, Comitatus 4, 1973: 1-23. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.68.199.137 (talk) 12:31, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Apology for editing error

I recently reverted a replacement of this link in a citation in the article with this one. When I first checked the article pointed to by the second link I did not take sufficient care to ensure that I had properly understood the small part of the article's introduction that I quickly glanced over. I consequently obtained the mistaken notion that the linked article was a rebuttal of the one cited, rather than a reprint of it. My apologies for the error, particlarly to the editor from IP address 143.52.60.254, who was responsible for the perfectly correct updating of the link. Thanks to another editor, Noren, who has now corrected my mistake.
David Wilson (talk · cont) 08:33, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Utility of Heliocentrism

There is scant mention of the navigational and timekeeping advantages of the heliocentric system. The article might benefit from a short section on this subject. 31.69.1.10 (talk) 10:50, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

There are some advantages in a geocentric system. If a space-craft is passing Saturn, a Saturno-centric system will be useful, too.