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Unit1 Great Scientists-Using Language(1)

Using Language Reading and Writing

Copernicus' Revolutionary Theory Nicolaus Copernicus was frightened and his mind was confused.

Although he had tried to ignore them, all his mathematical calculations led to the same conclusion: that the earth was not the centre of the solar system.

Only if you put the sun there did the movements of the other planets in the sky make sense. Yet he could not tell anyone about his theory

as the powerful Christian Church would have punished him for even suggesting such an idea. They believed God had made the world and for that reason the earth was special and must be the centre of the solar system.

The problem arose because astronomers had noticed that some planets in the sky seemed to stop, move backward and then go forward in a loop. Others appeared brighter at times and less bright at others.

This was very strange if the earth was the centre of the solar system and all planets went round it. Copernicus had thought long and hard about these problems and tried to find an answer.

He had collected observations of the stars and used all his mathematical knowledge to explain them. But only his new theory could do that.

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