What Is Ptolemy's Accomplishments

Ptolemy was an ancient philosopher in Alexandria who lived from approximately 100 BCE to 170 CE. While Ptolemy is considered Greek in terms of ethnicity, he is also considered a “Hellenized Egyptian”(http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ptolemy) as he was born in Alexandria, Egypt. There is evidence suggesting that Ptolemy was granted Roman citizenship since his first name is Claudius, which is a Roman name. Many historians conclude that Ptolemy spent the entirety of his life in Alexandria. Very little is known about Ptolemy, as the only records of his existence are in his written works, which contain mathematic, scientific, astronomical, astrological, philosophical, musical, and geographic observations and inferences. A large portion of Ptolemy’s written work is based on the observations of Hipparchus, causing some historians to question the amount of original work Ptolemy has produced.
Ptolemy’s mathematical achievements include trigonometry tables that have the ability to calculate the positions of various celestial bodies such as …show more content…
The Almagest was used as an astronomical guide until the 1600’s by European and Islamic astronomers. Within these thirteen books, Ptolemy introduced his trigonometry tables and how to calculate the motion of the sun in order to find its position at various times. This was useful for finding the zodiac that the sun was positioned in. The Almagest also provided instructions on how to create tools for finding the positions of the moon and the sun. Ptolemy further created a catalog of the coordinates of stars based on the ecliptic, which is the path of the sun. Most of the coordinates written by Ptolemy were slightly modified versions of Hipparchus’s original coordinates. Ptolemy’s most influential scientific observation was his geocentric model of the universe, also known as the “Ptolemaic