Astronomy, mathematics, physics.
— Cliff Pickover (@pickover) August 31, 2025
The evolution in our thoughts and models: Heliocentrism and Geocentrism.
By Malin Christersson, source: https://t.co/0T2N21Uiro (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) pic.twitter.com/nDQkEEUmq9
Ancient people assumed that the sun moved as it rose in the east and set in the west. Stars and planets did the same. This is geocentrism, the theory that the earth is the static center of the universe. It made sense because nothing is as human as people thinking the world revolves around them. But as scientists and philosophers observed the orbits of planets and the relative movements of stars, the idea of heliocentrism arose. That's the theory that earth and other planets revolve around the sun. The illustration above shows how each of those theories work from a distance, and which one makes more sense.
Malin Christersson has an enhanced interactive version of the illustration at his website, along with a timeline of scientists and philosophers who advocated one theory or the other. Notably, the war between the two theories lasted up through the 17th century, mainly because geocentrism was considered to be Biblical, but also because Tycho Brahe misinterpreted an observation. -via Memo of the Air