Now showing
Is the Earth a Planet? (1957)
About this film
Take a piece of glass, thicker in the center than at the edges. Add it to a piece thicker at the edges that in the center. Use the two to create a revolutionary view of the earth. Holding such lenses, I. Bernard Cohen (Associate Professor of the History of Science and of General Education, Harvard University) shows how, pointed at the stars, they destroy a commonsense notion that the earth is the center of the universe. The revolution in thought which described the earth as a wanderer through space, like Mars or Venus, challenged the old tenets of common sense as has no other revelation of science. And yet, how can a telescope, two lenses, do this? After all, you cannot stand off in space to look at the wandering of the earth. Really then, on such evidence, is the earth a planet after all? Cohen invites you to inspect the evidence: phases of the moon and Venus, enormous shadows cast by mountains of the moon, the notebooks of Copernicus. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Directors & creators
WGBH Educational Foundation
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, History of science, Astronomy, Telescopes, Earth, Planets, Fixed stars, Constellations, Celestial motion, I. Bernard Cohen, Planetary motion, Scientific instruments, Scientific method, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Optics, Empirical observation, Star charts, General education, History of astronomy
More from this pool