Question

Facts about arisotle

Answer 1

Aristotle’s Physics
•Said 4 elements with different qualities make up all matter:
1.Earth - Cold, Dry
2.Fire - Hot, Dry
3.Air - Hot, Wet
4.Water - Cold, Wet
• A fifth perfect element (aether) existed only beyond Earth.
• Bodies move according to their “qualities”.
• A “Qualitative” physics rather than a modern, “Quantitative” system.
• The “light elements” (fire, air) tend to move upwards, “heavy elements” (water, earth) tend to move down.
• A rational system which seemed to explain observable phenomena.


Aristotle’s Cosmology
• Earth fixed at center of universe, around which moves 10 transparent crystal spheres.
• Embedded in first 8 spheres: sun, the 5 planets, moon, & fixed stars.
• During Middle Ages, 2 more spheres added to account for motion of stars over time.
• Beyond 10th sphere was Heaven (God & saved souls).
• Spheres moved by “Prime Mover” (God).
• The Geocentric Theory of the Universe.
Aristotle’s theory developed & expanded by ancient astronomer Ptolemy (the Ptolemaic System).
• Aristotle unable to account for backward (retrograde) motion of planets.
• To Aristotle’s concentric spheres Ptolemy added epicycles embedded in the orbits of the various planets.
• Unable to accurately predict planetary motion, however.