FREE delivery to all EXCLUSIVE BOOKS stores nationwide. FREE delivery to your door on all orders over R450. Excludes all international deliveries.

Ballet of the Planets

Donald Benson
    Product form
      FORMAT: Hardback

      R 2,675.31 Price and availability exclusive to website

      YOU COULD EARN 2,675.31 FUTURE RETAIL DISCOUNTS.
      ESTIMATED DELIVERY: Approx. 10 - 15 Business Days
      BUY NOW PAY LATER
      From R 445.88 per month!
      3x monthly payments of R 891.77 with
      4x fortnightly payments of R 668.82 with
      The Ballet of the Planets unravels the beautiful mystery of planetary motion, revealing how our understanding of astronomy evolved from Archimedes and Ptolemy to Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton. Mathematician Donald Benson shows that ancient theories of planetary motion were based on the assumptions that the Earth was the center of the universe and the planets moved in a uniform circular motion. Since ancient astronomers noted that occasionally a planet wouldexhibit retrograde motion—would seem to reverse its direction and move briefly westward—they concluded that the planets moved in epicyclic curves, circles with smaller interior loops, similar to the patterns of a child's Spirograph. With the coming of the Copernican revolution, the retrograde motion wasseen to be apparent rather than real, leading to the idea that the planets moved in ellipses. This laid the ground for Newton's great achievement—integrating the concepts of astronomy and mechanics—which revealed not only how the planets moved, but also why. Throughout, Benson focuses on naked-eye astronomy, which makes it easy for the novice to grasp the work of these pioneers of astronomy.
      Format: CONTRIBUTORS: Donald Benson EAN: 9780199891009 COUNTRY: United States PAGES: WEIGHT: 388 g HEIGHT: 242 cm
      PUBLISHED BY: Oxford University Press Inc DATE PUBLISHED: 2012-06-21 CITY: GENRE: MATHEMATICS / History & Philosophy, SCIENCE / Space Science / Astronomy, SCIENCE / History WIDTH: 163 cm SPINE:

      Book Themes:

      History of science, Popular science, Theoretical and mathematical astronomy, Popular astronomy and space

      Customer Reviews

      Be the first to write a review
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      Donald C. Benson is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Davis, and the author of A Smoother Pebble and The Moment of Proof.
      The Ballet of the Planets unravels the beautiful mystery of planetary motion, revealing how our understanding of astronomy evolved from Archimedes and Ptolemy to Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton. Mathematician Donald Benson shows that ancient theories of planetary motion were based on the assumptions that the Earth was the center of the universe and the planets moved in a uniform circular motion. Since ancient astronomers noted that occasionally a planet wouldexhibit retrograde motion—would seem to reverse its direction and move briefly westward—they concluded that the planets moved in epicyclic curves, circles with smaller interior loops, similar to the patterns of a child's Spirograph. With the coming of the Copernican revolution, the retrograde motion wasseen to be apparent rather than real, leading to the idea that the planets moved in ellipses. This laid the ground for Newton's great achievement—integrating the concepts of astronomy and mechanics—which revealed not only how the planets moved, but also why. Throughout, Benson focuses on naked-eye astronomy, which makes it easy for the novice to grasp the work of these pioneers of astronomy.
      Format: CONTRIBUTORS: Donald Benson EAN: 9780199891009 COUNTRY: United States PAGES: WEIGHT: 388 g HEIGHT: 242 cm
      PUBLISHED BY: Oxford University Press Inc DATE PUBLISHED: 2012-06-21 CITY: GENRE: MATHEMATICS / History & Philosophy, SCIENCE / Space Science / Astronomy, SCIENCE / History WIDTH: 163 cm SPINE:

      Book Themes:

      History of science, Popular science, Theoretical and mathematical astronomy, Popular astronomy and space

      Customer Reviews

      Be the first to write a review
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      Donald C. Benson is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Davis, and the author of A Smoother Pebble and The Moment of Proof.

      Recently viewed products

      Login

      Forgot your password?

      Don't have an account yet?
      Create account