Have you ever wondered what sparked the study of magnetism and changed the Ptolemaic model of the solar system with the Earth at its core? The Ptolemaic model was the dominant model of the solar system made up of the systems created by Aristotle and Ptolemy. From Ancient Greece in 4th Century B.C up until the late 16th century/early 17th century that model was used to show that every planet moves in a system of two spheres. These spheres were called deferent and epicycle, which both rotated clockwise. Before Galileo Galilei, astronomer, physicist and philosopher, defied this geocentric model for a heliocentric one and before Johannes Kepler, the astrologer, astronomer and mathematician, changed the views on planetary motion there was a spark
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Due to the wealth of his influential predecessors at times he can only name them, however, a common fact he notes is that they are all “somewhat in error” due to these philosophers basing their research off of vague and indecisive experiments (Gilbert 51). He is quite critical of more recent authors of research with the statement, “very many [authors] have striven to discover the cause of this direction and movement to north and south, and to understand this so great miracle of nature and lay it open to others: but they wasted oil and labor, because, not being practical in the research of objects in nature” (Gilbert 47). The reason Gilbert does this so excessively is to doubtlessly show his thorough research while establishing …show more content…
His answer was simple, let nature decide. So Gilbert took the globe-shaped loadstone, Terella, and set it in a tub of water and watched as it aligned itself with the north and south poles of the Earth. While they did align Gilbert stated that “all instrument-makers, and navigators, are egregiously mistaken in taking for the north pole of the loadstone the part of the stone that inclines to the north, and for the south pole the part that looks to the south” (Gilbert 68). This is the great error he spoke of at the very beginning of his books because his experiments showed that opposites attract therefore the north was attracted to south and south attracted to north proving his predecessors wrong. An elementary principle, which Gilbert contributed to, of magnetism, is that opposites attract and furthermore that similar poles will repel away from each other.
The final quality that defines a loadstone for the scientist is that it attracts iron ore or smelted metals to itself. “Plato mentions that the magnet, so called by Euripides, draws to itself iron, and not only attracts iron rings but also endows them with the power of doing as the stone itself, to wit, of attracting other rings, and that thus sometimes a long chain of iron objects” (Gilbert 74). Gilbert’s experiments reinforce this concept repeatedly as the magnet is drawn to iron leading
Due to the wealth of his influential predecessors at times he can only name them, however, a common fact he notes is that they are all “somewhat in error” due to these philosophers basing their research off of vague and indecisive experiments (Gilbert 51). He is quite critical of more recent authors of research with the statement, “very many [authors] have striven to discover the cause of this direction and movement to north and south, and to understand this so great miracle of nature and lay it open to others: but they wasted oil and labor, because, not being practical in the research of objects in nature” (Gilbert 47). The reason Gilbert does this so excessively is to doubtlessly show his thorough research while establishing …show more content…
His answer was simple, let nature decide. So Gilbert took the globe-shaped loadstone, Terella, and set it in a tub of water and watched as it aligned itself with the north and south poles of the Earth. While they did align Gilbert stated that “all instrument-makers, and navigators, are egregiously mistaken in taking for the north pole of the loadstone the part of the stone that inclines to the north, and for the south pole the part that looks to the south” (Gilbert 68). This is the great error he spoke of at the very beginning of his books because his experiments showed that opposites attract therefore the north was attracted to south and south attracted to north proving his predecessors wrong. An elementary principle, which Gilbert contributed to, of magnetism, is that opposites attract and furthermore that similar poles will repel away from each other.
The final quality that defines a loadstone for the scientist is that it attracts iron ore or smelted metals to itself. “Plato mentions that the magnet, so called by Euripides, draws to itself iron, and not only attracts iron rings but also endows them with the power of doing as the stone itself, to wit, of attracting other rings, and that thus sometimes a long chain of iron objects” (Gilbert 74). Gilbert’s experiments reinforce this concept repeatedly as the magnet is drawn to iron leading