ANONYMOUS, write on one side before and answer from your personal point of view

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1 ANONYMOUS, write on one side before and answer from your personal point of view What happens when science and religion meet? Are they enemies? Are they strangers? Are they partners? 1 A. The first Sunday after the first full Moon after the Vernal Equinox 2 1

2 A. The 2 nd new Moon after the Winter Solstice 3 A. The first or first and second days of Tishri 4 2

A. The ninth month of the year 5 Easter and Chinese New Year are good examples of Luni Solar holidays, a combination of A solar event (vernal equinox or winter solstice) And a lunar event (full or

3 A. The ninth month of the year 5 Easter and Chinese New Year are good examples of Luni Solar holidays, a combination of A solar event (vernal equinox or winter solstice) And a lunar event (full or new moon) Rosh Hashanah is not quite a Luni Solar holiday First day of a lunar month (can see the crescent moon) But always occurs near the autumnal equinox Ramadan is a pure Lunar holiday Lasts one lunar month, first day is when can see crescent moon Occurs any time in a solar year 6 3

Why don t Easter, Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and Ramadan occur on the same day each year? A Tropical year is 365.2422 days A lunar month is 29.53059 days And when you divide one by the other 12.

4 Why don t Easter, Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and Ramadan occur on the same day each year? A Tropical year is days A lunar month is days And when you divide one by the other (all to 7 significant figures) 7 In general a culture s oldest calendar is a lunar one Better for hunting? Shorter cycle? Easiest to use? But even then not all cultures will implement a lunar calendar in the same way Jewish & Islamic start a month with the first sighting of the new moon (directly observable) Chinese used the true new moon or conjunction (not directly observable) 8 4

5 Then a solar calendar comes into importance: Better for agriculture? Keeping tack of seasonal events Flooding of the Nile? Gestational cycles of animals? Migratory cycles of animals? Some cultures will then try to keep the two calendar s in sync Keep holidays (religious) in same season of the year Culture will then ask its astronomers to make measurements and solve a complex math problem 9 What should a Muslim do each day? Where is Mecca? Will drive Islamic astronomers in a different direction, geography is helped by stellar observations. What questions a culture asks drives its science 10 5

6 Calendars don t have to be based on astronomical observations Besides a solar calendar Mesoamerican cultures had a 270 day calendar No astronomical event correlates well with 270 days It is however close to the human gestation period! Did work on getting the two to sync up with each other 11 Following the beliefs of the Medieval Christian church: THE major religious holiday Commemorates events that first occurred during a Passover (Pesach) celebration OK, so when does Passover occur? The 14th of Nisan (Note full moon) Calendar is strictly lunar 12 lunar months = = 354 days 1 Tropical year = days 14th of Nisan slips forward 11 days each year 12 6

7 To keep Passover in the springtime Intercalated, or added an extra month, just before Nisan A 13 month year is called an embolistic year When do you add the extra month? Ask your local Rabbi 13 In 313 CE Roman Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity Christianity then becomes the state religion Easter at this time Asian churches: Ignore Sunday and celebrate on the 14th of Nisan Roman and African churches: Celebrate on Sunday nearest to either day after or two days after Passover Enough of this! Call the 1 st ecumenical council of Nicea in part to solve this in 325 CE 14 7

8 Keep it in sync with Passover? When is Passover? Ask your local rabbi? Turn the whole business over to the astronomers? 15 Council decides: WE WILL CELBRATE EASTER ON THE SAME DAY Asian church solution is heretical Ask learned men at Alexandria to solve the problem Ask for a table of when Easter will be and so begins the use of a set of tabulated moons not real moons to determine Easter From Alexandria Sunday after full moon after Vernal equinox 19 year long cycle that repeats and they create a table that gives the date of Easter 95 years in advance 16 8

Problems: Did not play in Rome Used an 84 year cycle. Why 84? Smallest number of 28 year cycles that gave a good fit to x days in y Julian years matching x days in y Lunar months. Why 28?

9 Problems: Did not play in Rome Used an 84 year cycle. Why 84? Smallest number of 28 year cycles that gave a good fit to x days in y Julian years matching x days in y Lunar months. Why 28? In 28 years days and dates in a Julian year repeat Pope Saint Leo I tried to solve in 455 CE Gave problem to Victorius of Aquitaine Suggested the Alexandrian solution Discovered 532 year cycle (19 28) Easters, days, dates, and phase of Moon repeats 17 Not accepted In 525 CE, new Pope, John I, new commission Asked Dionysius Exiguus to solve problem Alexandrian solution of 19 years Carried the day (so to speak) on the continent Dionysius more famous for something else Started BC\AD system Placed Christ s birth in year 1 (not 0) AD/CE Remember the year 2001 not 2000 is the new millennium? 18 9

British and Irish (Celtic) Churches Followed an 84 year cycle Allowed for a full moon on Easter Sunday Showdown in 664 CE In 669 CE if you did not accept the new Easter dates you were excommunicated

10 British and Irish (Celtic) Churches Followed an 84 year cycle Allowed for a full moon on Easter Sunday Showdown in 664 CE In 669 CE if you did not accept the new Easter dates you were excommunicated All of Christianity unified on when Easter is Only took 300+ years And it isn t even a correct solution 19 By the time of Charlemagne (800 CE) people started to notice the errors In length of Julian year, call this error/difference Absolute error is 11 minutes 14 seconds, 0.002% error Cumulative error from 325 to 800 CE 3.7 days, Vernal equinox coming on the 17 th /18 th of March In lunar cycle, call this error/difference Cumulative error in the 19 year cycle 1.5 days, Real full moons about a day and a half earlier than tabulated moons 20 10

11 Beginning of credibility problem A man who could not compute was not worthy to be a priest Saint Augustine 21 In 1220 AD Sacroboso proposed The error/difference = 1 day in 300 years or 4 minutes 48 seconds per year The error/difference = 1 day in 310 years, or 4 minutes 36 seconds per year Both taken straight from Ptolemy Drop days from calendar to put Vernal Equinox back on 21 March Objection from Campanus of Navarre Cited Islamic astronomer al Battani The error/difference = 1 day in 100 years or 14 minutes 24 seconds per year 22 11

12 What do you notice about this way of doing science? Francis Bacon made measurements The error/difference = 1 day in 125 years Urged Pope to fund astronomy to determine and 23 Follies In 1276 Easter a month off: Men fasted when they should have feasted and feasted when they should have fasted In 1345 eight days off In 1356 a month off again In 1424 five weeks late In 1433 and 1437 one week off Most of all we should be ashamed at the scandalous words that the obduracy of the Jews throws at us, since they continually snipe that we have not understood how to follow the simplest rules of God s law 24 12

13 In 1517 Martin Luther starts the Protestant Reformation (more on this later) Around 1560 Grand Duke Cosimo I dei Medici is busy building a power base in Northern Italy Renovate church in Florence Santa Maria Novella Along policy from the Council of Trent Council in response to Protestant Reformation Also worked on the Easter problem While at it Because the Grand Duke knowing how much glory Julius Ceaser had obtained from his reform of the year, which though good is not perfect devoted himself to the task 25 Brought in a Dominican Monk, Egnatio Danti, to help with this task and others Egnatio Danti said he needed to make accurate measurements of length of Tropical Year In 1574 mounted an armillary sphere and a quadrant on the façade of Santa Maria Novella Turning the Church into a solar observatory 26 13

14 Drawing Plan Mounted on the Church Façade

15 Drawing Plan Mounted on the Church Façade 29 These instruments did not give enough accuracy His solution, put a hole in the façade of the Church And they let him do it! 30 15

kicked him out Sent packing to Bologna Where he

16 31 Never got a chance to complete this meridiana Cosmio died in 1574, son who succeeded him in 1575 kicked him out Sent packing to Bologna Where he started work on another meridiana in San Petronio 32 16

17 Finally in 1582 Gregorian reform went through From Pope Gregory 5 October 1582 followed by 15 October 1582 This put Vernal Equinox back to 21 March Omit three leap years every 400 years One day in the lunar cycle every 312 ½ years Fixes take place in century years 1700, 1800, 1900 NOT leap years 1600, 2000 leap years Tables still required fine tuning now and then to calculate Easter 33 So now all of Christianity back together on Easter, right? Remember what happened in 1517? German states adopt Gregorian reform in 1700 England, and England s colonies, hold out until September followed by 14 September New Year s day moved from 25 March to 1 January Haven t touched on Eastern Orthodox 34 17

18 In 1695 major building campaign at San Petronio Decided to retain and refurbish the meridiana created 75 years earlier Total cost of this project alone would be 15% of the annual income of the church Brought in as a consultant an up and coming astronomy professor at the University Giovanni Domenico Cassini 35 Most famous for discovering the Cassini division, or gap, in Saturn s Rings Was eventually hired away from Italy by Louis XIV to be Royal astronomer of France He founded a dynasty of royal astronomers that lasted until the French Revolution Named a spacecraft after him The above you will learn in your basic introductory astronomy course 36 18

19 The following you will not learn in your basic introductory astronomy course Was encouraged to become a priest Natural career path for someone talented in math and science in Italy Almost did so, but did not because felt no calling for the priesthood In true consultant form, he said the existing meridiana was not worth saving and should pay him to build a new one. 37 Three things important for an accurate (stable) Meridiana Height of hole must be not change Floor must be level Meridian line must run precisely due North South Solutions Use old part of Church were walls have finished settling Use water Use a stick 38 19

22 Registry published in 1736 Covers years from 1655 to 1736 spans 81 years Some 4,500 observations 55 per year But the Camel s nose just got under the tent Meridiana was accurate enough to determine the change in the apparent angular diameter of the Sun over the course of the year. What? 43 Argued in favor of Copernican/Keplerian system Sun stays still Earth and planets move Church approved of Ptolemaic system Earth is at center and at rest Sun and planets move around the Earth Agreed with one style of interpretation of various passages from the Bible 44 22

23 Old Testament, Book of Josuha 10:12 14 On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon. So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. All passages were from Old Testament or Psalms 45 Catholic Church had an easy out: St. Augustine If we find a passage in the Bible that the literal sense contradicts what we observe it means that the passage must be interpreted in another fashion. Part of the problem was: Galileo was arguing with the Dominicans He had a bit of a chip on his shoulder, very bright and let you know he was very bright Was proposing how to interpret the Bible: The Bible tells you how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go After Luther the church had had enough of that? 46 23

24 Copernicus and Kepler s works were banned, but it was not a very effective ban Mostly in Italy Only had to strike out offending passages Were allowed to use Copernican / Keplerian system for calculations if stated something like: We know that this is not true, but it is a useful construct for doing our calculations Why this out? In part needed for Easter calculations 47 Basic assumptions The Earth does not move. The Earth is the center of the solar system. Objects in the sky move in circular paths. Objects in the sky moved with uniform circular motion along those circular paths

September Fall 90 Days Winter Solstice 21 December Winter 89 Days 49 Basic assumptions The Earth does

25 How Long are the Seasons? Vernal Equinox 20 March Spring 93 Days Summer Solstice 21 June Summer 93 Days Autumnal Equinox 22 September Fall 90 Days Winter Solstice 21 December Winter 89 Days 49 Basic assumptions The Earth does not move. The Earth is the center of the solar system. Objects in the sky move in circular paths. Objects in the sky moved with uniform circular motion along those circular paths

26 Note that the Sun is closest to the Earth in Northern hemisphere winter. Is this OK?

Therefore the change in the angular diameter of the

27 The distance from the Earth to the Sun varies twice as much if Ptolemy is right and not Kepler Therefore the change in the angular diameter of the Sun will change only half as much if Kepler is right

28 55 The Meridiana at San Petronio did show that the change in the angular diameter of the Sun matched Kepler s predictions Built in a Church For purposes of establishing Easter Unintended consequence? 56 28

29 What: Predict when Easter would occur. Why: Break with the Jewish religion Desire for uniformity Etc How: Partially done by turning churches into solar observatories. There were unintended consequences of this 57 What would a religion or a religious leader ask from Astronomers / Scientists? 58 29

For centuries, Muslims determined the start of Ramadan (and its end) by direct observations of the new moon in their village, city or country Because varying geographical and weather conditions meant

30 For centuries, Muslims determined the start of Ramadan (and its end) by direct observations of the new moon in their village, city or country Because varying geographical and weather conditions meant that everyone did not see the new moon s first appearance. Muslims around the world began fasting on different days. In 2006 Fiqh Council of North America, an organization of Muslim legal scholars, declared that it would use astronomical calculations instead of naked eye moon sightings to mark the start of Ramadan

31 Origin & Evolution of the Universe & Fred Hoyle, eminent British Astronomer Favored Steady State theory of the universe as opposed to the Big Bang theory In part because he was an atheist and to him a creation point for the universe implied a creator Does the Big Bang theory validate the creation story in Genesis? Which Story? Does it matter 7 days vs billion years? 61 Origin & Evolution of the Universe & The Dali Lama (leader of Tibetan Buddhism) Favors an endless cycle of universes, Big Bang followed by Big Crunch, followed by Big Bang, etc. In part because of Buddhist beliefs in infinite cycles of cause and effect This was a possible cosmology until the discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe (dark energy) Is dark energy a threat to Buddhism? 62 31

Global Climate Warming and (some) Christian denominations Biblical concept of Stewardship The world (universe) is not our world it is God s world (universe) Humans are to be stewards of the world

32 Global Climate Warming and (some) Christian denominations Biblical concept of Stewardship The world (universe) is not our world it is God s world (universe) Humans are to be stewards of the world Causing global climate warming is NOT being a good steward! NASA should work more on global climate warming? 63 ANONYMOUS, write on other side after and answer What happens when science and religion meet? Are they enemies? Are they strangers? Are they partners? 64 32

Viewed from Earth's north pole, the rotation of Earth and its moon are counter-clockwise.!

Viewed from Earth's north pole, the rotation of Earth and its moon are counter-clockwise.! The Earth rotates around once in 24 hours The time it takes for the Earth to rotate completely around once is what we call a day. It's Earth's rotation that gives us night and day. Viewed from Earth's