The Copernican Revolution

A set of computer simulations and curricular materials for teaching the history of astronomy from Ancient Greece to Isaac Newton.

by

Todd Timberlake
Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy
Berry College
Mount Berry, GA


[Overview] [Simulations] [Curricular Materials] [Textbook] [Credits] [Terms of Use] [Presentations]

Overview

This page contains curricular materials that I have developed for a course on the Copernican Revolution. The course is intended to satisfy a science requirement for non-science majors. The course explores the historical development of astronomy from the Ancient Greeks to Isaac Newton. The main purpose of the course is to use early modern astronomy as an example for illustrating how scientific theories are developed and tested and how scientific knowledge changes over time.

I teach the course using interactive methods. Students work in small groups to complete worksheet-based activities. Most of the activities involve using computer simulations. Some of the activities make use of commercial planetarium software (Starry Night Enthusiast 6.2). It is possible that an open-source planetarium program (like Stellarium or Celestia) could be used instead, but I haven't tried it. The remaining activities use computer simulations that I have created using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) package. These simulations are part of the Open-Source Physics (OSP) project and are available for free using the links below, along with all of the worksheets for the activities. Interested faculty may also be able to get a pre-publication version of a textbook for this course.

For a more detailed description of the course see http://berryactivelearning.blogspot.com/2009/06/ast-120-copernican-revolution.html.


Computer Simulations

The computer simulations come in the form of a single Java executable file (JAR file). The program should run on any computer with Java 1.5 (or newer) installed. This single program is a package that contains all 53 of the computer simulations I have developed for my Copernican Revolution course. Each simulation is accompanied by a description and an explanation of the controls. All of the simulations were created using Easy Java Simulations (EJS) and are open-source, so you are free to alter and redistribute them (but please see the Terms of Use before doing so). You are free to use the simulations any way you wish, but I have developed a series of worksheet-based activities that use the simulations (as well as some commercial software and some physical equipment) guide students through an exploration of this material. The worksheets are available below.

Warning: I am continuing to refine these simulations, as well as develop new ones. I will try to keep an up-to-date version of the simulations available here, but this could lead to some incompatibilities between the most recent version of the simulations and the activity/lab handouts posted below. If you want a version that should work well with the handouts, use the class-tested version. Otherwise, use the most recent version.

Class-tested version: CopernicanRevolution.jar (3.2 MB).

New versions of several simulations: ejs_astronomy.jar (3.9 MB). This package contains 12 simuluations. Ten are new versions of simulations from the original Copernican Revolution package. In some cases the new simulations replace several of the old simulations. Two simulations (CelestialGlobe and EquinoxPrecession) are completely new. I will be teaching this course again in Spring 2011, so by the end of that semester I should have new activity worksheets to go with these new simulations.

Curricular Materials

The table below contains a list of topics (arranged into 7 groups) that students explore in my Copernican Revolution course. For each topic I provide a link for downloading the corresponding worksheet (in pdf format), a list of the simulations related to that topic (all simulations are contained within the CopernicanRevolution.jar package linked above), and a list of any other materials needed to complete the activity. The worksheets designated with "(A)" are activities designed to be used in a single 75 minute class period (with some time left over for a short lecture review). The worksheets designated with "(L)" are laboratory exercises designed to be used in a single 120 minute laboratory period. Ideally these materials should be used in the order in which they are listed, but there is some flexibility (especially with some of the labs).

You are free to use (and even change) the worksheets, but please see the Terms of Use before doing so. If you wish to edit the worksheets, and you know how to use LaTeX (or are willing to learn), you can download a package containing all the .tex files and other necessary files (images, etc.) for all of the worksheet. To download this package click the link below:
CRtex.zip (4 MB).

If you would like to edit the worksheets but need them in a different format please email me (ttimberlake@berry.edu) and I may be able to accommodate you.

Please watch out for typos and other errors in these handouts. I cannot guarantee that they are without flaws - but the handouts posted here are all materials that I have used in my own class. Please work carefully through the exercises yourself before you give them to your students!

Group Topic Worksheet Simulations Other Materials
Observations The Dome of the Sky (A) SkyDome.pdf (40 KB) none Starry Night
The Celestial Globe (L) CelGlobeLab.pdf (56 KB) none celestial globe
Motion of the Sun (A) SunMotion.pdf (52 KB) none Starry Night
Shadows and Gnomons (L) ShadowsLab.pdf (184 KB) Gnomon, Analemma none
The Moon (A) TheMoon.pdf (40 KB) none Starry Night
Observing the Moon (L) MoonLab.pdf (108 KB) MoonPhases nighttime observations
The Planets (A) ThePlanets.pdf (32 KB) none Starry Night
The Zodiac and Precession (A) TheZodiac.pdf (56 KB) none Starry Night
Observing the Night Sky (L) ConstellationsLab.pdf (72 KB) none nighttime observations
Ancient Greeks Two Sphere Universe (A) TwoSphere.pdf (64 KB) none Starry Night
Aristotle's Physics (A) AristotlePhysics.pdf (32 KB) Simulations steel ball, graduated cylinder, pennies, book
Spheres of Eudoxus (A) Eudoxus.pdf (44 KB) Eudoxus, Epicycle, EpicycleSunSuperior, EpicycleSunInferior none
Ptolemy's Syntaxis (A) Ptolemy.pdf (60 KB) Eccentric, EpicycleEccentric, Equant, SuperiorPtolemaic, InferiorPtolemaic none
Eratosthenes Measures the Earth (L) EratosthenesLab.pdf (76 KB) AngularSize, Eratosthenes Starry Night
Copernicus Motions of the Earth (A) EarthMoves.pdf (56 KB) DailyRotation, DailyRotation2, EarthOrbit none
Copernicus' Theory of the Planets (A) CopernicusPlanets.pdf (72 KB) SimpleVenus, SimpleMars none
The Scale of the Universe (A) ScaleOfUniverse.pdf (100 KB) SimpleInferior, SimpleSuperior, EarthParallax none
Tycho The Tychonic System (A) TychoSystem.pdf (56 KB) FullMars, All3Systems, All3Systems2 none
Parallax (L) (warning: there are some problems with this lab that I will fix soon) ParallaxLab.pdf (160 KB) Parallax Starry Night
The Comet of 1577 (A) TychoComet.pdf (32 KB) none Starry Night
Kepler Kepler's Mysterium (A) Mysterium.pdf (68 KB) MysteriumTriangle, MysteriumSquare, MysteriumPentagon, MysteriumTetrahedron, MysteriumCube, MysteriumOctahedron, MysteriumDodecahedron, MysteriumIcosahedron shapes for building Platonic solids
The Species Motrix (A) SpeciesMotrix.pdf (72 KB) KeplerEquant, SpeciesMotrix, KeplerInertia none
Earth's Orbit: Kepler's Second Law (A) EarthOrbit.pdf (72 KB) SecondLawCircle compass, straight edge
Mars' Orbit: Kepler's First Law (A) MarsAttack.pdf (132 KB) KeplerCircle, KeplerOval, KeplerOrbits none
Harmonices Mundi (A) HarmonicesMundi.pdf (168 KB) none none
Kepler's Laws (L) KeplersLawsLab.pdf (1.9 MB) KeplerSystem ruler
Galileo Message of the Stars (A) SideriusNuncius.pdf (60 KB) MoonMountain, VenusPhasesPt, VenusPhases none
Sunspots and Solar Rotation (L) SunspotsLab.pdf (272 KB) Sunspots ruler
The Moons of Jupiter (L) PDF (504 KB) none Moons of Jupiter CLEA program
Falling Bodies (A) FallingBodies.pdf (116 KB) InclinedPlane lead ball, wood ball
Free Fall (L) FreeFallLab.pdf (48 KB) none Free Fall apparatus (Pasco, Cenco, etc)
Neutral Motions (A) NeutralMotions.pdf (44 KB) InclinedPlane, ProjectileMotion none
Newton Newton's Laws of Motion (A) NewtonsLaws.pdf (84 KB) Corollary1 none
Centripetal Forces (A) CentralForces.pdf (128 KB) CentripetalForce, InverseSquare none
Universal Gravitation (A) UniversalGravitation.pdf (88 KB) NewtonsMountain, NewtonsMtn2 none


Textbook

Paul Wallace and I have written a textbook for the Copernican Revolution course that we have taught at Berry College. Although the textbook is not yet ready for publication, interested college faculty or high school teachers may be able to obtain a pre-publication version of the text for review and possible use in a college or high school astronomy course. Please contact Todd Timberlake (ttimberlake@berry.edu) if you are interested in receiving an electronic copy of the textbook for review.

Credits


Terms of Use

All of the materials on this page are available free of charge. Feel free to download the materials and explore them with no obligation whatsoever. However, if you use any of these materials in a class please contact me (ttimberlake@berry.edu) to let me know. I would like to receive feedback on the simulations and the worksheets (especially if you find an error!) and I would like to keep track of where they are being used. If you make any modifications of the simulations or worksheets I would like to know about it (if you made it better then I want to use your improved version!).

The Java programs in the CopernicanRevolution.jar package are Open Source Physics (OSP) programs that were created using Easy Java Simulations (EJS) and are freely distributable under the GNU GPL license. For more information about the Open Source Physics project visit http://www.compadre.org/osp/.

Creative Commons License
All of the curricular materials (including the narratives in the Launcher package) are copyrighted by Todd Timberlake and/or Paul Wallace and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. You may modify and redistribute these materials for non-commercial use as long as you clearly cite the original author (Todd Timberlake for all simulations materials and the activity handouts, Paul Wallace and Todd Timberlake for the lab handouts) and release the materials under the same license.


Presentations On This Material

I have given a few presentations on this material and the links below provide access to my presentation materials.
[TODD TIMBERLAKE'S RESEARCH WEBPAGE]

Todd K. Timberlake (ttimberlake@berry.edu)