Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (384 BCE – 322 BCE), a student of Plato, promoted the concept that observation of physical phenomena could ultimately lead to the discovery of the natural laws governing them. He wrote the first work which refers to that line of study as “Physics” (Aristotle’s Physics). During the classical period in Greece (6th, 5th and 4th centuries BCE) and in Hellenistic times, natural philosophy slowly developed into an exciting and contentious field of study.
Early in Classical Greece, that the earth is a sphere (“round”), was generally known by all, and around 240 BCE, Eratosthenes (276 BCE – 194 BCE) accurately estimated its circumference. In contrast to Aristotle’s geocentric views, Aristarchus of Samos (Greek: Ἀρίσταρχος; 310 BCE – ca. 230 BCE) presented an explicit argument for a heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the centre. Seleucus of Seleucia, a follower of the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus, stated that the Earth rotated around its own axis, which in turn revolved around the Sun. Though the arguments he used were lost, Plutarch stated that Seleucus was the first to prove the heliocentric system through reasoning.
In the 3rd century BCE, the Greek mathematician Archimedes laid the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and the explanation of the principle of the lever. In his work On Floating Bodies, around 250 BCE, Archimedes develops the law of buoyancy, also known as Archimedes’ Principle. The astronomer Ptolemy wrote the Almagest, a comprehensive astronomical text that formed the basis of much later science.
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