Ptolemaic Theory vs Copernican Theory
by Lillian Bonar
Essay: Ptolemaic Theory vs Copernican Theory
Pages: 11
Rating: 3 stars
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During the Age of Galileo, people believed in the existence of only one truth. This guiding principle would prove
to be a problem when the Copernican theory rose to challenge the Ptolemaic theory as the true model of the
universe. The two rival theories were contradictory, either the earth was at the center of the universe or it wasn’t.
The task at hand was to decide which theory was the true one, and this is when the scientific stalemate between
the two theories began.
The scientific stalemate that Cardinal Bellarmine referred to when he wrote his letter to Foscarini in 1615 was due
to the inability of anyone to prove the superiority of either the Copernican or Ptolemaic/Aristotelian theory to the
other. Both theories of the universe, although “saving the appearances” made by astronomers over the years,
offered a different explanation of celestial mechanics. The Aristotelian theory held that the earth is motionless at
the center of the universe, and that the sun, planets, and stars revolve daily around it. It was the most easily
understood model, agreeing with simple observations such as the sun, moon, planets, and stars apparently racing
across the sky daily. The Copernican theory argued that the sun lay at the center of the universe, and the earth
and planets revolve around the sun. Both theories made predictions agreeing, with great accuracy, to observation.
However, only one theory could be the correct one.
Two important points of disagreement that existed between the Ptolemaic and Copernican astronomers before
Galileo were the poor structure of the Copernican model compared to the Ptolemaic, and the lack of any
experimental evidence that could both support the Copernican model and argue against the Ptolemaic. These t...