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This thesis details and analyzes the interaction between computers and science in a particular case. The case is the career of Wallace J. Eckert (1902-1971). Eckert was a professor of astronomy at Columbia University and scientific researcher for IBM. He has received some attention in the history of computing for his significant work in machine computation in the 1930s and 1940s and was the foremost expert on lunar theory for much of his life. First the existing secondary literature on the subject is discussed. Eckert's work has rarely been the focus of sustained historical scrutiny, but the question of the relation of science and the computer has received more scholarship in the history, philosophy and sociology of science. The main narrative of the thesis begins with the history of the various mathematical techniques and external aids to computation used over the course of the history of celestial mechanics. Having set the context, Eckert's early life and career is detailed up until 1945. Here, before the modern computer as such was developed, Eckert innovated by adapting IBM punched card machines to astronomical applications. Next Eckert's time as a scientific researcher employed by IBM after 1945 is detailed. Here he helped establish a culture of scientific research at IBM, demonstrated the value of IBM's products for science, aided in the development of new more complex machine designs including electronic systems and continued his own astronomical research. Eckert's major projects on electronic machines are described, especially those in lunar theory, with explanation of how his astronomical methods remained the same or were modified and expanded by later electronic machines and how he innovated with the machines at his disposal. In the conclusion, after summarizing later developments in celestial mechanics, broader questions about the modern computer's role in science are engaged. Continuity between pre and post computer methods is well illustrated by Eckert's work. His work also shows that while the computer was a force for change in celestial mechanics, the form of that change depended on the choices, resources and practices of the people using it.

This thesis details and analyzes the interaction between computers and science in a particular case. The case is the career of Wallace J. Eckert (1902-1971). Eckert was a professor of astronomy at Columbia University and scientific researcher for IBM. He has received some attention in the history of computing for his significant work in machine computation in the 1930s and 1940s and was the foremost expert on lunar theory for much of his life. First the existing secondary literature on the subject is discussed. Eckert's work has rarely been the focus of sustained historical scrutiny, but the question of the relation of science and the computer has received more scholarship in the history, philosophy and sociology of science. The main narrative of the thesis begins with the history of the various mathematical techniques and external aids to computation used over the course of the history of celestial mechanics. Having set the context, Eckert's early life and career is detailed up until 1945. Here, before the modern computer as such was developed, Eckert innovated by adapting IBM punched card machines to astronomical applications. Next Eckert's time as a scientific researcher employed by IBM after 1945 is detailed. Here he helped establish a culture of scientific research at IBM, demonstrated the value of IBM's products for science, aided in the development of new more complex machine designs including electronic systems and continued his own astronomical research. Eckert's major projects on electronic machines are described, especially those in lunar theory, with explanation of how his astronomical methods remained the same or were modified and expanded by later electronic machines and how he innovated with the machines at his disposal. In the conclusion, after summarizing later developments in celestial mechanics, broader questions about the modern computer's role in science are engaged. Continuity between pre and post computer methods is well illustrated by Eckert's work. His work also shows that while the computer was a force for change in celestial mechanics, the form of that change depended on the choices, resources and practices of the people using it.

In this dissertation, I examine astronomical practice in the second half of the seventeenth century by analyzing the nature of observation and instrumentation within an institutional and social context. I argue that astronomical practice was transformed by the convergence of several overlapping factors including the deployment of new instruments, the mathematical and astronomical education of practitioners, the gradual assimilation of new ideas, and the rise of scientific societies and networks. More specifically, I argue that the 1670's controversy between Johannes Hevelius and Robert Hooke and the ensuing debate that involved a larger circle of practitioners, helped establish a new foundation for the discipline of astronomy. In forcing practitioners to take sides, the controversy prompted them to define the precise nature of astronomical practice as well as the necessary qualifications for its practitioners. In Chapter 1, I discuss sixteenth and seventeenth-century astronomical instruments, and I provide a history of instrumentation from the use of positional measuring instruments in the late sixteenth century to the more widespread use of micrometers and telescopically-mounted positional measuring instruments in the late seventeenth century. Proceeding from the instruments to the people involved, in Chapters 2 and 3 I discuss the mathematical and astronomical community of the late sixteenth to late seventeenth centuries. The "community" included those individuals working both within and outside the universities. In Chapter 4, I discuss the Hevelius-Hooke controversy over the relative merits of naked-eye versus telescopic sights as the watershed in positional astronomy that defined the role of astronomers, shaped their methods of observation, and directed future research. In the final chapter of this study, Chapter 5, I discuss the work of Cassini at the Paris Observatory and Flamsteed at the Greenwich Observatory, and how their efforts were shaped by the Hevelius-Hooke controversy. / Ph. D.

O conceito de espaço é um dos mais fundamentais da natureza e tem sido, ao longo da história da ciência, objeto de estudo de diversos filósofos, físicos e também astrônomos. Do ponto de vista epistemológico, este conceito foi de grande importância para algumas das mais famosas visões cosmológicas: desde a concepção aristotélica, passando pela gravitação newtoniana até a formulação da teoria geral da relatividade. Por outro lado, reconstruir a evolução das medidas de distancias astronômicas é uma forma de abordar a própria história da Astronomia. Essa história é repleta de construções, desconstruções e mudanças de paradigmas. Tal dinamismo é um elemento instigante e motivador, mas estranhamente não se reflete, na maioria dos casos, nos livros didáticos e nas aulas de ciências como um todo. Este trabalho consiste na elaboração e na aplicação de um material didático composto por atividades e oficinas que, utilizando as muitas formas de abordar pedagogicamente o conceito de espaço, buscam estimular alunos e até mesmo professores a refletir sobre como nos relacionamos com a natureza por meio da ciência. As atividades, construídas e aplicadas, ao longo de dois anos, a alunos do nono ano do Ensino Fundamental e do primeiro ano do Ensino Médio, foram divididas segundo dois objetivos específicos. As primeiras exploraram algumas questões ainda em aberto estudadas pela física de partículas e a grande controvérsia existente durante séculos que marcou a transição da visão Geocêntrica para a Heliocêntrica no século XVI. Tais questões foram elaboradas no sentido de ressaltar o quão dinâmico é o nosso entendimento sobre a natureza. A segunda parte do trabalho de campo consistiu na elaboração e na aplicação de oficinas de determinação de distâncias astronômicas por métodos consagrados ao longo da história da ciência. O relato dos alunos e a avaliação dos resultados das oficinas nos mostraram que, de fato, os famosos experimentos reconstruídos pelos alunos durante as oficinas levaram a resultados próximos dos valores conhecidos pela literatura e, muito mais importante, revelaram o caráter dinâmico e evolutivo do conhecimento científico. / The concept of space is one of the most fundamental of the nature and it has been, throughout the history of science, an object of study by several philosophers, physicists and astronomers. From the epistemological point of view, this concept has been of great importance for some of the most famous cosmological visions: from the Aristotelian conception, through Newtonian gravitation until the formulation of the General Theory of Relativity. On the other hand, reconstructing the evolution of measurements of astronomical distances is a way of approaching the history of astronomy itself. This story is full of constructions, deconstructions and paradigmatic changes. Such dynamism, despite being an exciting and motivating element, has not been reflected in textbooks and in the general learning of science. This work consists in the elaboration and application of a didactic material composed by activities and workshops that, considering the plenty of approaches for the concept of space in the pedagogical context, seeks to stimulate students and even teachers to reflect on how we relate to nature through science. The activities were prepared and applied over two years to students from the last year of elementary school, and first year in high school, those activities were grouped according to two specific objectives. The first one intended to explore some open questions studied by particle physics and the great controversy over the centuries that marked the transition from the Geocentric to the Heliocentric view in the sixteenth century. Both questions wished to emphasize how dynamic our understanding of nature is. The second part of the fieldwork consisted of the elaboration and application of workshops to determine some astronomical distances by methods well established throughout the history of science. The students\' reports and the evaluation of the workshops results showed that, in fact, the famous experiments reconstructed by them during the workshops led to results close to the values known by the specific literature and, more importantly, revealed the dynamic and evolutionary character of the scientific knowledge.

O conceito de espaço é um dos mais fundamentais da natureza e tem sido, ao longo da história da ciência, objeto de estudo de diversos filósofos, físicos e também astrônomos. Do ponto de vista epistemológico, este conceito foi de grande importância para algumas das mais famosas visões cosmológicas: desde a concepção aristotélica, passando pela gravitação newtoniana até a formulação da teoria geral da relatividade. Por outro lado, reconstruir a evolução das medidas de distancias astronômicas é uma forma de abordar a própria história da Astronomia. Essa história é repleta de construções, desconstruções e mudanças de paradigmas. Tal dinamismo é um elemento instigante e motivador, mas estranhamente não se reflete, na maioria dos casos, nos livros didáticos e nas aulas de ciências como um todo. Este trabalho consiste na elaboração e na aplicação de um material didático composto por atividades e oficinas que, utilizando as muitas formas de abordar pedagogicamente o conceito de espaço, buscam estimular alunos e até mesmo professores a refletir sobre como nos relacionamos com a natureza por meio da ciência. As atividades, construídas e aplicadas, ao longo de dois anos, a alunos do nono ano do Ensino Fundamental e do primeiro ano do Ensino Médio, foram divididas segundo dois objetivos específicos. As primeiras exploraram algumas questões ainda em aberto estudadas pela física de partículas e a grande controvérsia existente durante séculos que marcou a transição da visão Geocêntrica para a Heliocêntrica no século XVI. Tais questões foram elaboradas no sentido de ressaltar o quão dinâmico é o nosso entendimento sobre a natureza. A segunda parte do trabalho de campo consistiu na elaboração e na aplicação de oficinas de determinação de distâncias astronômicas por métodos consagrados ao longo da história da ciência. O relato dos alunos e a avaliação dos resultados das oficinas nos mostraram que, de fato, os famosos experimentos reconstruídos pelos alunos durante as oficinas levaram a resultados próximos dos valores conhecidos pela literatura e, muito mais importante, revelaram o caráter dinâmico e evolutivo do conhecimento científico. / The concept of space is one of the most fundamental of the nature and it has been, throughout the history of science, an object of study by several philosophers, physicists and astronomers. From the epistemological point of view, this concept has been of great importance for some of the most famous cosmological visions: from the Aristotelian conception, through Newtonian gravitation until the formulation of the General Theory of Relativity. On the other hand, reconstructing the evolution of measurements of astronomical distances is a way of approaching the history of astronomy itself. This story is full of constructions, deconstructions and paradigmatic changes. Such dynamism, despite being an exciting and motivating element, has not been reflected in textbooks and in the general learning of science. This work consists in the elaboration and application of a didactic material composed by activities and workshops that, considering the plenty of approaches for the concept of space in the pedagogical context, seeks to stimulate students and even teachers to reflect on how we relate to nature through science. The activities were prepared and applied over two years to students from the last year of elementary school, and first year in high school, those activities were grouped according to two specific objectives. The first one intended to explore some open questions studied by particle physics and the great controversy over the centuries that marked the transition from the Geocentric to the Heliocentric view in the sixteenth century. Both questions wished to emphasize how dynamic our understanding of nature is. The second part of the fieldwork consisted of the elaboration and application of workshops to determine some astronomical distances by methods well established throughout the history of science. The students\' reports and the evaluation of the workshops results showed that, in fact, the famous experiments reconstructed by them during the workshops led to results close to the values known by the specific literature and, more importantly, revealed the dynamic and evolutionary character of the scientific knowledge.

Le Goladīpikā (L’illumination de la sphère) est un traité composé par Parameśvara. Il existe deux versions de ce texte : l’une a été éditée avec une traduction anglaise et l’autre n’est qu’une édition utilisant trois manuscrits. Cette thèse donne une nouvelle édition de la deuxième version en utilisant onze manuscrits dont un commentaire anonyme nouvellement trouvé. Elle se compose aussi d’une traduction anglaise et de notes explicatives. Pour l’essentiel, le Goladīpikā est une collection de procédures pour déterminer la position des objets célestes. Cette thèse décrit les outils mathématiques qui sont utilisées dans ces procédures, en particulier les Règles de trois, et discute de la manière dont Parameśvarales fonde. Il y a une description d’une sphère armillaire au début du Goladīpikā. Donc ce doctorat examine aussi comment cet instrument a pu être utilisé pour expliquer ces procédures. Ce travail tente aussi de positionner le Goladīpikā au sein du corpus des oeuvres Parameśvara et d’autres auteurs / The Goladīpikā (Illumination of the sphere) is a Sanskrit treatise by Parameśvara, which is extant in two distinctly different versions. One of them has been edited with an English translation and the other has only an edition using three manuscripts. This dissertation presents a new edition of the latter version using eleven manuscripts, addinga newly found anonymous commentary. It further consists of an English translation of the base text and the commentary as well as explanatory notes. The main content of the Goladīpikā is a collection of procedures to ind the positions of celestial objects in the sky. This dissertation highlights the mathematical tools used in these procedures, notably Rules of Three, and discusses how the author Parameśvara could have grounded the steps. There is a description of an armillary sphere at the beginning of the Goladīpikā, and the dissertation also examines how this instrument could have been involved in explaining the procedures. In the course of these arguments, the dissertation also attempts to position the Goladīpikā among the corpus of Parameśvara’s text as well as in relation to other authors

This thesis considers the anonymously published Epistola de terrae motu and the question of its authorship. The authorship of this treatise was attributed to G. J. Rheticus by Reijer Hooykaas in a publication released in 1984; however, that attribution is not decisive. The first chapter introduces De terrae motu and is followed by a second chapter that contains a review of the relevant historiography relating to scholarship on Rheticus. The third chapter presents Rheticus’ biography. The fourth chapter considers the inconclusive reasoning for the attribution of authorship to Rheticus. The fifth and sixth chapters consider the environment of scriptural hermeneutics in the early modern period, both theoretically and with recourse to specific texts, respectively. The seventh chapter concludes this thesis with a synthesis of the arguments herein which ultimately indicate that it is conceivable that Rheticus wrote De terrae motu but an early seventeenth-century Catholic author is more likely.

Dans cette thèse, nous avons étudié un corpus de dix textes latins abordant des questions astronomiques telles que la forme de l’univers et de la Terre, la description des constellations ou le mouvement des astres et des planètes, à savoir les Aratea de Cicéron, le livre IX du De architectura de Vitruve, le De astronomia d’Hygin, les Astronomica de Manilius, les Arati phaenomena de Germanicus, le livre II de la Naturalis historia de Pline, une large portion du Timaeus a Calcidio translatus commentarioque instructus de Calcidius, les Aratea d’Aviénus, certains chapitres des Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis de Macrobe et, enfin, le livre VIII du De Nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae de Martianus Capella. Cette recherche avait pour objectif d’une part de comprendre ce qu’était le savoir astronomique pour les auteurs de ces textes et d’autre part de voir quels étaient les moyens à leur disposition pour transmettre cette connaissance. Pour ce faire, nous avons jeté un regard double sur notre corpus : alors que notre plan a été essentiellement guidé par une enquête épistémologique abordant les grands thèmes de l’astronomie antique – autrement dit, le contenu –, notre analyse a été quant à elle davantage concentrée sur la forme, tant logique que rhétorique, de ces exposés. Nos analyses nous ont permis de mieux comprendre l’aspect didactique de toutes ces œuvres, aussi diverses soient-elles quant à leur genre, en repérant un certain nombre de procédés littéraires qui leur étaient communs, parmi lesquels nous trouvons la mise en scène de l’homme qui observe les phénomènes célestes, la mise en scène de l’homme qui raisonne et la mise en scène du ciel lui-même. / In our thesis, we study a corpus of ten Latin texts discussing astronomical topics such as the shape of the universe, the constellation descriptions and planet movements : the Aratea by Cicero, the ninth book of the De architectura by Vitruvius, the De astronomia by Hyginus, the Astronomica by Manilius, the Arati phaenomena by Germanicus, the second book of the Naturalis historia by Pliny, a large part of the Timaeus a Calcidio translatus commentarioque instructus by Calcidius, the Aratea by Avienus, some chapters of the Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis by Macrobius and, finally, the eighth book of the De Nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae by Martianus Capella. The major aims of this research were first to understand what was astronomical knowledge for the authors of these texts and, secondly, to see what were the means at their disposal to convey that knowledge. To achieve this, we did a dual study of our corpus : as our plan was essentially guided by an epistemological inquiry addressing the major themes of ancient astronomy - in other words, content, our analysis was in turn more focused on the form, both logical rhetorical, of these presentations. Our analyses allowed us to better understand the didacticism or educational aspect of all these works, as diverse as they were, by identifying a number of common literary devices, among which we find the staging of the man observing celestial phenomena, the staging of the man who reasons and the staging of the sky itself.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T14:16:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcia Nobue Sacay.pdf: 966027 bytes, checksum: 2f75af320fb173e12c0a53cf53e61afa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-05 / This paper Will present the scientific facts discussed in the book Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds, written by Bernard Le Boyer de Fontenelle, in 1686, which had a great impact on many issues. To narrate the scientific facts of the time, Fontenelle deals, the book first published in 1686, the form of dialogues between supposedly caught him and a marquese on their evening walks around the castle gardens in the Summer. Both talk about the design of astronomical systems from Ptolomy and Copernicus. The Moon, the planets and the possibility of existence of other worlds like our own, are also discussed during the meetings. Narratives built using a communications strategies and arguments in order to facilitate understanding of abstract and complex astronomical phenomena by means of analogies. With the book, takes part in iniciatives to popularize science, in order to inform and entertain people without impose theories, staying somewhat on the fringes of science academies. In this paper we present the ideas of science contained in the book, trying to recognize, at the same time, the similarities and differences of those groups conveyed by scholars / Este trabalho apresentará os fatos científicos discutidos no livro Diálogos sobre a Pluralidade dos Mundos, escrito por Bernard Le Boyer de Fontenelle, em 1686, que teve grande repercussão com grande número de edições. Para narrar os fatos científicos da época, Fontenelle adota a forma de diálogos supostamente travados entre ele e uma marquesa em seus passeios noturnos pelos jardins do castelo, no verão. Os dois conversam sobre a concepção dos sistemas astronômicos de Ptolomeu e Copérnico. A Lua, os planetas e a possibilidade de existência de outros mundos semelhantes ao nosso, também são tratados durante os encontros. Fontenelle construiu narrativas utilizando estratégias de comunicação e argumentação, de modo a facilitar a compreensão dos fenômenos astronômicos abstratos e complexos por meio de analogias, Com o livro, toma parte de iniciativas em divulgar a ciência, com o intuito de informar e entreter as pessoas, sem impor teorias, mantendo-se, de certa forma, à margem da ciência das academias. Neste trabalho vamos apresentar as ideias de ciência contidas no livro, buscando reconhecer, ao mesmo tempo, as aproximações e distanciamentos daquelas veiculadas pelos grupos eruditos