Elements Of Astronomy (1900) - Softcover

Newcomb, Simon

9780548816677: Elements Of Astronomy (1900)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0548816670 ISBN 13: 9780548816677

Verlag: Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2008

Alle Exemplare dieser ISBN-Ausgabe

1 Gebraucht

Von EUR 27,62

0 Neu

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world’s literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Rese�a del editor

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Biograf�a del autor

Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 - July 11, 1909) was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician. He made important contributions to timekeeping as well as writing on economics and statistics and authoring a science fiction novel. He studied mathematics and physics privately and supported himself with some school-teaching before becoming a functionary in charge of calculations at the Nautical Almanac Office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1861, he took advantage of one of the ensuing vacancies to become professor of mathematics and astronomer at the United States Naval Observatory, Washington D.C. he set to work on the measurement of the position of the planets as an aid to navigation, becoming increasingly interested in theories of planetary motion. By the time he visited Paris, in 1870, he was already aware that the table of lunar positions calculated by Peter Andreas Hansen was in error. While in Paris, he realised that, in addition to the data from 1750 to 1838 that Hansen had used, there was further data stretching as far back as 1672 and was able to use the “new” data to revise Hansen's tables. He was offered the post of director of the Harvard College Observatory in 1875 but declined, having settled that his interests lay in mathematics rather than observation. In 1877 he became director of the Nautical Almanac Office where he embarked on a program of recalculation of all the major astronomical constants. Despite fulfilling a further demanding role as professor of mathematics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University from 1884, he conceived with A. M. W. Downing a plan to resolve much international confusion on the subject. By the time he attended a standardisation conference in Paris, in May 1896, the international consensus was that all ephemerides should be based on Newcomb's calculations. In 1878, Newcomb had started planning for a new and precise measurement of the speed of light that was needed to account for exact values of many astronomical constants, when he received a letter from A. Michelson who was also planning such a measurement. Thus began a long collaboration and friendship. In 1880, Michelson assisted at Newcomb's initial measurement with instruments located at Fort Myer and the United States Naval Observatory, then situated on the Potomac River. Though Michelson published his first measurement in 1880, Newcomb's measurement was substantially different. In 1883, Michelson revised his measurement to a value closer to Newcomb's.

��ber diesen Titel� kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.