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Ptolemy (aka Claudius Ptolemaeus, Ptolomaeus, Klaudios Ptolemaios, Ptolemeus) lived in Alexandria (in Egypt) from approx. 87 -150 AD. Very little is known about his personal life (the image above is probably purely the artist's imagination)
He was an astronomer, mathematician and geographer. He codified the Greek geocentric view of the universe, and rationalized the apparent motions of the planets as they were known in his time.
Ptolemy synthesized and extended Hipparchus's system of
epicycles and eccentric circles to explain his geocentric theory of the solar system.
Ptolemy's system involved at least 80 epicycles to explain the motions of the Sun,
the Moon, and the five planets known in his time.
He believed the
planets and sun to orbit the Earth in the order Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn. This system became known as the Ptolemaic system.
It predicts the positions of the
planets accurately enough for naked-eye observations
This is described in the book Mathematical Syntaxis (widely called the
Almagest), a
thirteen book mathematical treatment of the phenomena of astronomy. It contains
a myriad of information ranging from earth conceptions to sun, moon, and star
movement as well as eclipses and a breakdown on the length of months.
The Almagest also included a star catalog containing 48 constellations, using
the names we still use today.
In addition to his well known works in astronomy, Ptolemy was very important
in the history of geography and cartography.
Ptolemy of course knew that the Earth is a sphere.
Ptolemy's is the first known projection of the sphere onto a plane.
His
Geography
remained the principal work on the subject until the time of Columbus.
But he had Asia extending much too far east,
which may have been a factor in Columbus's
decision to sail west for the Indies.
The Ptolemaic explanation of the motions of the planets remained the accepted wisdom until the Polish scholar Copernicus proposed a heliocentric view in 1543. Also, it should be noted that Ptolemy's system is actually more accurate than Copernicus's. The heliocentric formulation does not improve on Ptolemy's until Kepler's Laws are also added.
It is doubtful that Ptolemy actually believed in the reality of his system.
He may have thought of it only as a method of calculating positions.
Ptolemy also wrote Tetrabiblos, a work on astrology. (In those days, astrology was a reputable field of study.)
[Note: There were also a number of Egyptian rulers known as Ptolemy who ruled Egypt from 323BC to 30BC. Though they lived in Egypt, the Ptolemys were Greek.]
