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The idea is simply explained by looking at the Earth and Mars orbiting the Sun, as we now know they do, and assume circular orbits for simplicity. The Earth's orbit has a radius of 1.000 and it goes round in 365.25 days, while Mars's orbit has a radius of 1.524 and it goes round in 687 days.
Now suppose some outside force has decreed that the Earth stays still. How is the movement of Mars explained now? well, all you have to do is put Mars on an epicycle so that the centre of the epicycle has the same circle with radius 1.524, going round in 687 days, but in addition to this the epicycle has a radius of 1.000 and Mars goes round that (as well) in 365.25 days.
In this way the Ptolemaic system explains all the observed behaviour of the Mars while allowing the Earth to remain fixed at the centre. Extra epicycles were added to allow for eccentricity and inclination of the orbits.
Don't forget there was no dynamical theory underlying the Ptolemaic and Copernican theories: they only aimed to reproduce the observed movements of the planets among the fixed stars.
Of course Copernicus had a different starting-point from us, he started with the Earth at the centre, but he must have been impressed about the gain in simplicity achieved by placing the Sun at the centre instead of the Earth.
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RossCopernicus figured out that the sun is the center of our solar system.
------------actually he just improved upon the idea of a heliocentric universe. Aristarchus and a lot of other people had came up with the idea first. he just used math physics and cosmology together to produce a better model of a heliocentric universe :)
In the 16th century he put forward the theory that the Sun is fixed at the centre of the solar system, based on the idea that it would make the movements of the planets simpler to explain.
It was not until the 18th century that it was discovered that the Sun is 330,000 times more massive than the Earth, and after that it was generally accepted as the truth that the Sun is at the centre.
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How do you spell Copernicus?
The correct spelling is, indeed, Copernicus.
Where is Nicolaus Copernicus hometown?
nicolaus copernicus hometown
Where was homeland of Nicolas Copernicus?
Nicolas Copernicus' homeland is Poland
How was Nicolas Copernicus a scholar?
Copernicus was a polymath who studied at Krakow Academy
When did nicolaus Copernicus' father die?
nicolaus copernicus' father died when he himself was at the age of 10..when nicolaus Copernicus was 10 years old
