Aristotle in geography briefly. Biography briefly for children: about youthful years. What did Aristotle discover in biology

Aristotle was born on the coast of the Aegean Sea, in Stagira. The year of his birth is between 384-332 BC. Future philosopher and encyclopedist, received a good education, after all his father and mother served as doctors to the king, grandfather of Alexander the Great.

At the age of 17, a promising young man, possessing encyclopedic knowledge, entered the Academy himself, which was located in Athens. He stayed there for 20 years, until the death of his teacher, whom he highly appreciated and at the same time allowed himself to enter into disputes with him because of different views on significant things and ideas.

After leaving the Greek capital, Aristotle became a personal mentor and moved to Pella for 4 years. The relationship between the teacher and the student developed quite warmly, until the moment when Macedonian ascended the throne with inflated ambitions - to conquer the whole world. The great naturalist did not approve of this.

Aristotle opened his own philosophical school in Athens - Lyceum, which was successful, but after the death of Macedonsky, an uprising began: the views of the scientist were not understood, he was called a blasphemer and an atheist. The place of death of Aristotle, many of whose ideas are still alive, is called the island of Euboea.

Great naturalist

The meaning of the word "naturalist"

The word naturalist consists of two derivatives, so literally this concept can be taken as "testing nature." Therefore, a naturalist is called scientist who studies the laws of nature and its phenomena, and natural science is the science of nature.

What did Aristotle study and describe?

Aristotle loved the world in which he lived, longed to know it, to master the essence of all things, penetrate into the deep meaning of objects and phenomena and pass on their knowledge to subsequent generations, preferring to report accurate facts. One of the first he founded science in its broadest sense: for the first time created a system of nature - physics, defining its basic concept - movement. In his work, there was nothing more important than the study of living beings, and, therefore, biology: he revealed the essence of animal anatomy, described the mechanism of movement tetrapods, studied fish and mollusks.

Achievements and discoveries

Aristotle made a huge contribution to ancient natural science - proposed his own system of the world. So, he believed that in the center there is a motionless Earth, around which the celestial spheres with fixed planets and stars move. At the same time, the ninth sphere is a kind of engine of the Universe. Besides, greatest sage antiquities predicted Darwin's doctrine of natural selection, he demonstrated a deep understanding of geology, in particular the origin of fossils in Asia Minor. Metaphysics was embodied in many works of the ancient Greek - "On the sky", "Meteorology", "On the emergence and destruction" and others. Science as a whole was for Aristotle the highest level of knowledge, because the scientist created the so-called "ladder of knowledge".

Contribution to philosophy

The fundamental place in the activity of the researcher was occupied by philosophy, which he divided into three types - theoretical, practical and poetic. In his writings on metaphysics, Aristotle develops the doctrine of the causes of all things, defining four basic ones: matter, form, producing cause and purpose.

One of the first scientists revealed the laws of logic and classified the properties of being on certain grounds, philosophical categories. The basis was the conviction of the scientist in the materiality of the world. His theory is based on the fact that the essence is in the things themselves. Aristotle gave his own interpretation of Platonic philosophy and precise definition being, and also thoroughly studied the problems of matter, clearly defined its essence.

Views on politics

Aristotle was involved in the development of the main areas of knowledge of the time - and politics is no exception. He gave Special attention the value of observation and experience and was a supporter of moderate democracy, understanding justice as a common good. It is justice, according to the ancient Greek, that should become the main political goal.

He was convinced that political structure should have three branches: judicial, administrative and legislative. Aristotle's forms of government are monarchy, aristocracy and polity (republic). Moreover, he calls only the last one correct, because it combines the best sides oligarchies and democracies. The scientist also spoke about the problem of slavery, drawing attention to the fact that all Hellenes should be slave owners, a kind of masters of the world, and the rest of the peoples should be their faithful servants.

Ethics and the doctrine of the soul

It is impossible to underestimate the contribution of Aristotle to psychological science, because his doctrine of the soul is the center of all worldviews. According to the sage, the soul is connected on the one hand - with the material component, and on the other - with the spiritual, i.e. with God blessing. It is only a natural body. In other words, all living things have a soul, which, according to the scientist, are only three types: plant, animal and human (reasonable). However, the opinion about the transmigration of souls ancient Greek philosopher categorically denied, considering the soul, though not the body, but its inseparable part, and assuring that the soul is not indifferent in whose shell it resides.

Aristotle's ethics is, first of all, " correct rate» human behavior. Moreover, the norm does not theoretical foundations, but is determined by the characteristics of society. The central tenet of his ethics is reasonable behavior and moderation. The scientist was convinced that only through thinking a person makes his choice, and creativity and actions are not the same thing.

The Significance of Aristotle's Works

The views of Aristotle were spread by the Arabs throughout medieval Europe and were called into question only during the technical revolution of the mid-16th century. All lectures of the scientist were collected in books - 150 volumes, a tenth of which has survived to this day. These are biological treatises, philosophical works, works on art.

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"Wisdom is the most accurate of the sciences. You can make mistakes in various ways, you can only do the right thing in one way, that's why the first is easy, and the second is difficult; it's easy to miss, it's hard to hit the target." Aristotle.

The genius of ancient Greece

Ancient philosophy is a subject of controversy for many historians and researchers. It is divided into ancient Greek and ancient Roman. It was the Greeks who achieved the greatest success in the field of philosophy when they began to consider it as an independent science, separating it from the previous mythological teachings, which initially had a huge impact on the understanding of the world among the Hellenes. Among the most famous philosophers known throughout the world are Socrates, Plato and, of course, Aristotle. The latter, being a student of Plato, was not inferior to him either in mind or in personality, and concentrated his life on research. It is about Aristotle, his life and ideas, that we will talk about today.

Who is Aristotle? One of the greatest philosophers and minds of mankind was born in 384 BC. e., in the city of Stagir, in a family close to royal dynasty. The family of the future philosopher belonged to the true Hellenes. His father Nicomachus served as the chief physician of the Macedonian king Amyntas II, so that the royal palace was familiar to Aristotle from an early age.

Biography of Aristotle

For 20 years (from the age of 17), Aristotle lived in Athens and studied at Plato's school, called the Academy. The name comes from the statue of the hero Academ, where Plato held classes with his students. Aristotle in those years was called the "reader", since he did not seek the truth in endless conversations between students and the teacher, but in books, considering them a source of wisdom. Plato singled him out among his other students, seeing his extraordinary mind and craving for knowledge.

Over time, Plato noticed that Aristotle was moving away from his teachings, calling him "a colt that repels its mother." Despite the fact that Plato and Aristotle maintained friendly relations throughout the life of the first, the future genius preferred to explore the world on his own. The search for truth was important to him. He rethought any information received, looking for a logical explanation for certain facts and assumptions.

For a long time Aristotle lived in Asia and was the favorite teacher of Alexander the Great. However, a long and close friendship with the great conqueror was broken by a tragedy: Aristotle's nephew was executed on charges of conspiracy by Alexander himself. Rumor has it that it was the philosopher who sent him the poison that caused the death of Macedonian. Although this theory has not been confirmed in any way.

After the death of Plato, Aristotle opened his own school, which he called the Lyceum. He collected information about everything, not dividing the world into sciences, but trying to unite it, realizing that everything in the world is closely interconnected. And for this he had to become not only a philosopher, but also a doctor, physicist, biologist, teacher. Answering the question of who Aristotle is, one cannot but mention his amazing ability to work. It is believed that he wrote about four hundred books, among which were works on astronomy, poetry, ecology, physics, ethics and politics. For more than one hundred years, his works have been studied. Who is Aristotle for modern researchers? This is a man with the greatest abilities and craving for learning new things.

Of course, Aristotle was often mistaken in his judgments. However, errors in such a volume of work and studies, coupled with the lack of modern methods studies were inevitable. However, among the discoveries of Aristotle there are many true ones - he was one of the first to determine the spherical shape of the Earth and its satellite, noticed the similarity of monkeys and people, and began to conduct experiments on animals.

What are the teachings of Aristotle?

Who is Aristotle? This is a researcher who was interested in literally everything. He was looking for facts confirming this or that theory, and based his conclusions only on them.

Aristotle's teaching was that learning should begin with the sense perception of things. So, Plato was sure that the world of ideas (consciousness) is an independent, separate world that the soul contemplates before it goes to live in a mortal body. Aristotle, on the other hand, was sure that our souls are pure - and only with the arrival on earth, inscriptions in the form of our souls begin to appear on them. life experience. He was convinced that no special world of ideas is of interest, there are material things to which we give meaning in our minds.

Also, the philosopher had no doubt that the human soul is its integral part, which cannot exist separately from the body.

If we consider the philosophy that Aristotle formed, we can briefly conclude that it was he who founded logic - and in all his conclusions he was based on it.

Aristotle's doctrine of 4 reasons

Matter. Matter is eternal, indestructible and immense. It decreases and increases, and its formless form is nothingness. Primary matter is the path of the elements - earth, fire, air, water and the celestial substance called ether.

Form. Essence, purpose, reason. Being is the fusion of form and matter.

Cause. The moment the thing appears. The beginning of all things is God. Any thing initially has a reason that has an energy force, and only then - the beginning and the target meaning.

Target. Every thing has its purpose. The highest goal is the Good.

Conclusion

Who is Aristotle? A genius, of course, although many contemporaries called him an evil and envious person. Whether they were based on facts, like Aristotle himself, or whether their envy spoke in them, we will never know now. However, many ideas of genius have remained with us to this day.

Geography as a science arose at a certain stage of development human society, but the knowledge that we have the right to call geographical has been accumulating since the process of humanization began.

Our most ancient ancestors needed to know the habitat with all its favorable and dangerous properties. This was dictated by the need to survive and preserve the species.

Civilization ancient egypt goes back more than 30 centuries BC. The Egyptians built many palaces and temples and decorated their walls with scenes from their lives. Gradually, hieroglyphic writing developed. The Egyptians knew the starry sky well, made maps of it and maps of their own territory, knew how to determine the exact time, and used the calendar.

For 3 thousand years BC. The Egyptians improved writing by replacing clay with papyrus and wedge-shaped characters with hieroglyphs. In the art of navigation, they were inferior to the Phoenicians and used their services. Significant contribution to the development ancient culture and sciences were introduced by the peoples of Mesopotamia.

Inhabitants Sumer invented the wheel, mastered the cuneiform script, introduced counting and counting time, divided the circle of the zodiac into 360 parts, made bricks and built big houses. To combat floods, the Sumerians created a number of canals, dams.

ancient Persians occupied a limited area off the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. A highly developed civilization was formed ancient chinese.

In order to defend against the raids of nomads in the period of the IV-II centuries. BC. the Chinese built great wall stretching for thousands of kilometers.

This enterprise could not be carried out without proper geographical and topographical justification.

The Chinese came up with the inscription of "Arabic" numerals, hieroglyphic writing, a compass, gunpowder, the manufacture of silk fabrics, and finally, paper.

The founder of the Milesian (Ionian) philosophical school is considered Thales. Thales is credited with formulating several mathematical axioms.

Thales assumed water was the basis of all things: "Water is the beginning of all things." Thales represented the earth as a flat disk floating in the ocean.

Anaximander"About nature". Anaximander considered infinitely small particles with creative power to be the basis of things.

He named this substance Aleuron. From infinite and eternal primary matter under the influence of driving force first warm and cold were formed, and then through a mixture of these elements and liquid, which in turn gave rise to earth, air and fire.

Anaximander was the first to suggest that the Earth hangs freely in space and is held in this position due to the same distance from the celestial globe on all sides. The figure of the Earth resembles a cylinder, on the upper circular surface of which we live.

The earth moves around space. According to Anaximander, the original substance was homogeneous. Then there was its division: hot particles rose up, and silty, heavier ones, flowed down. From liquid particles, the sea arose, from solid particles, land.

All sorts of animals arose from the swamp bubbles, and from animals people evolved.

Anaximenes believed that air was the basis of everything. When rarefied, air becomes fire, and when condensed, it becomes a cloud, then water, and finally earth. The first was the Earth from the air, and the Moon, the Sun and the stars came from the Earth.

By Heraclitus, the primary substance is fire.

From fire came the world as a whole, individual things and even souls. All things arise through struggle according to necessity, which Heraclitus called "logos". The world process is cyclical: after the "great year" all things again become fire.

The basic law of nature, according to Heraclitus, is evaporation, since fire, thickening and condensing, turns into water, while water, solidifying, turns into earth, and, accordingly, transitions are made from earth to water and from water to fire. The evaporation of Heraclitus is a prototype of the mutual transformation of elements.

The first - historical - "Genealogies" ("Genealogies"). In it, Hecataeus defended the principles of plausibility. The second - geographical - "Earth description", which gives a description of the known parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Hecatea is called the founder of the descriptive method in geography, which uses the principle of reliability.

Herodotus- A story in nine books.

Persistently sought explanations for the causes of development natural processes. Herodotus suggested that it took the Nile about 10 thousand years to create a plain on the site of the bay, which was on the site of the delta.

Democritus- one of the founders of the atomistic theory. The whole world, according to Democritus, consists of emptiness and the smallest indivisible particles - atoms.

Atoms are eternal, in constant motion. All objects are compounds of atoms. Birth and death are due to the combination of atoms and their decay. He wrote the book "The Great World Construction", in which he outlined his views on the universe.

Epicurus proceeded from the recognition of the eternity of matter, which has internal sources of energy of motion.

Epicurus considered the human soul to be mortal and composed of especially thin atoms.

Pythagoras. The Pythagoreans believed that all bodies consist of "units of being", the combinations of which correspond to various geometric shapes. "All things are the essence of number."

The "Pythagorean quaternary" is known, in which one corresponds to a point, two to a line, three to a plane, four to a three-dimensional body. Ten, i.e. the sum of the first four numbers is a symbol of the fullness of the Cosmos. The planets are daughters of the Sun. The figure of the Earth must be perfect.

Such geometric figure is a ball.

Plato developed the theory of the existence of incorporeal forms of things, which he called species, or ideas. sensual world- generation of ideas. Ideas are eternal, do not arise, do not perish, do not depend on space and time. The source of knowledge is the memories of the immortal Soul of man about the world of ideas, contemplated by it before entering the mortal body.

Aristotle recognized the objectivity of the existence and development of the material world, but at the same time the act of the original creation - "an immovable prime mover".

"Meteorology" - top geographical science, antiquity. In it, in particular, the issue of the water cycle with the participation of evaporation from the surface of water bodies, cooling with the formation of clouds and precipitation is considered.

The precipitation that falls on the surface of the earth forms streams and rivers, the largest of which originate in the mountains. Rivers carry their waters to the seas in a volume equal to the amount of evaporated water. That is why the sea level remains stable. There is constant opposition between the sea and the land, which is why in some places the sea destroys the coast, in others a new land is formed.

This was first explained by Aristotle moon eclipse the shadow of the earth cast on the surface of the moon. In Politics, Aristotle discussed the influence natural factors on a person and his behavior in a direction that later received the name "geographical determinism".

He was the first to single out the field of knowledge that we still call geography. Eratosthenes considered the history of the development of the geographical ideas of his predecessors, gave an analysis of the sphericity of the Earth and the geographical consequences associated with it, proposed a method and for the first time calculated the main parameters the globe, very close to modern ones, considered the principles of unfolding a spherical surface onto a plane, carried out a country-specific description of the world known to him with a description of nature, the state structure of countries and the culture of peoples.

The book was illustrated with a map of the world with meridians and parallels plotted on it. Eratosthenes came up with the idea of reaching India by sailing west from the Iberian Peninsula.

Strabo. He wrote "Historical Notes", reflecting centennial period turbulent history of the Roman state.

Creator of a 17-book essay called "Geography". The main task of geography is to create the theoretical prerequisites for the "art of living" in the world of their own kind and in an environment created by nature and human activity. Strabo argued that it is impossible to comprehend the secrets of geography without understanding the celestial phenomena, without being able to make calculations, without studying the properties of the atmosphere. Strabo believed that water surface exceeds land area. When describing territories, Strabo used the principle of geographical zoning.

Strabo referred himself to the philosophical school of the Stoics.

According to them, the great fire shapes and defines the entire world around. After a certain cycle, a world fire will occur and destroy the world. Then his revival will begin with a repetition of everything that has already happened. As an organic part of the Cosmos, a person must take care of the whole world, of the beautiful Cosmos, of humanity as a whole, and not just about one city or a separate team.

Ptolemy made a significant contribution to the development of astronomy and geography, was the author of works, the most famous of which are "The Great Construction of Astronomy" and "Guide to Geography".

The name of Ptolemy is associated with the final establishment of the geocentric system of the world. According to the teachings of Ptolemy, the Earth is motionless, is at rest and is the center of the universe. The planets and the Sun revolve around the Earth in the following order: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

On the periphery is the sphere of fixed stars. The Ptolemaic system of the world was sanctified by the Christian Church and was considered the indisputable guide before Copernicus.

Ptolemy was an outstanding representative of ancient "mathematical geography". For Ptolemy was characteristic striving for quantitative rigor. Ptolemy divided geographic knowledge into chorography and geography. Chorografia is concerned primarily with quality, it cares about similarity and does not need mathematical methods.

Geography is a linear representation of the entire known surface of the Earth with everything that is on it.

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ARISTOTEL (384-322 BC) This is an ancient Greek scholar.

The idea of the sphericity of the earth was first introduced Greek philosopher Parmenides (in the century BC, N. No.). However, his statements were nothing but the result of speculative philosophy. The proponents of the sphericity of the Earth finally won when the old Greek scientist Aristotle took his side. True, he admitted big mistake, abandoning the Doctrine of the Earth's rotation and stating that the Earth is still and is at the center of the universe.

But it brought new evidence that the Earth is a sphere. Here is one of them: “The look of the stars not only shows that the Earth is a sphere, but also that it is not particularly large. Since it is enough to move a little to the north or to the south, so that the horizon is completely different. overhead changes a lot.” As an argument about the sphericity of the earth, Aristotle pointed out that in a dark eclipse the earth's shadow is the shape of a circle.

When the question of the shape of the Earth was resolved, the Greeks became interested in the question of its size, but how the Greeks did not measure the Earth.

Aristotle is the greatest philosopher.

He tried to find answers to questions by observing the world around him and collecting facts. Aristotle was the first thought, which is a very productive idea about ancient geography, unity and infinity of the World Ocean.

Aristotle's ideas about the spherical shape of the Earth

Scientific evidence of the sphericity of the Earth, one of the first, according to most researchers, was presented Aristotle(384–322 BC)

BC) about 200 years after Pythagoras in the treatise On the Sky. It presented several arguments based on observational facts at once:

First, there are lunar eclipses. If it is true that the Moon during an eclipse falls into the Earth's shadow, and if we see that the boundary of this shadow (the Terminator line) is always arcuate, we can conclude that the entire shadow has a circular cross section.

However, this shadow is cast by the Earth; and if the Earth had a shape other than that of a sphere, the section of the shadow would not be round for any mutual positions of the Earth and the Sun.

Figure 2 - Image of the Earth's shadow on the Moon.

The second proof is related to the view starry sky when the observer moves from south to north.

At more northern latitudes we see the celestial pole higher above the horizon; The sun rises lower above the horizon than in the south; and some stars that are visible in the south are not visible in the northern countries, and the stars that are constantly visible in the northern countries are found to be setting in the southern regions.

Aristotle also noticed that all heavy bodies fall to the ground at equal angles.

This Aristotelian proof of the sphericity of the earth needs some explanation. The fact is that Aristotle believed that the heavy elements, to which he attributed earth and water, natural way tend to the center of the world, which therefore coincides with the center of the Earth.

If the Earth were flat, then the bodies would not fall perpendicularly, because they would rush to the center of the flat Earth (Figure 3), but since all bodies cannot be directly above this center, then most bodies would fall to the earth along an inclined line.

Thus, Aristotle is also the first scientist to hypothesize the law of universal gravitation.

Figure 3 - The attraction of bodies to the center of the world in the case of a flat (left) and spherical Earth.

Finally, perhaps the most famous and popular argument, which tells how a ship leaving for the sea gradually disappears beyond the horizon, and how, when approaching the coast, the coastal mountains gradually rise from the horizon.

Figure 4 - The reason for hiding the departing ships over the horizon.

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If you ask any person what shape our planet has, he will answer without hesitation - a ball. Indeed, school textbooks for the initial course of geography by various authors, for example, Maksimova N.A., Krylova O.V. and others, position our planet as a ball or sphere. After all, even the earth's shells bear the names of spheres: lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere.

"A sphere is a closed surface, all points of which are equally distant from the center," - such a definition is given by the explanatory dictionary.

The Greek word "sphaira" means ball. Is it really? Modern geodetic studies show that the shape of the Earth is complex: the surface of the ocean floor is, as it were, depressed, close to the center of the Earth, and the surface of the continents is vice versa.

Therefore, our planet does not have the correct proportions.

Thus, there is a problem of discrepancy between the data of the school textbook and scientific literature on the subject of describing the shape of the Earth. On the very first page of the geographic atlas are two images of the Earth. One is the view from space, where we clearly see that the shape of the Earth is like a sphere; the other is the idea of the ancients about their place of residence, when people believed that the Earth is motionless and it must have some kind of support.

That's why ancient people- the Babylonians - thought that the Earth itself floats on the surface of the ocean, and the ancient Hindus, for example, believed that the Earth rests on four elephants standing on the back of a floating turtle.

Our ancestors imagined that the Earth rests on the backs of three large whales that swim on the surface of a vast ocean. Even in Yershov’s fairy tale “Humpbacked Horse”, Ivanushka flies on a skate over a whale, on the back of which villages stand, men ride carts, rye is grown in the fields, and at that time the whale swims in the sea-ocean.

The problem gets worse: So what is the shape of the Earth - flat, round, or some other?

Moreover, some peoples believed that it looked like a low stump of a sawn tree, on the flat surface of which people live.

Only in fairy tales can there be such huge whales or elephants that hold our planet on them. It is known that all animals must eat and reproduce.

In addition, not a single animal lives for more than a few hundred years, it ages and dies, not to mention the fact that no animals are able to withstand not only the weight of the entire Earth, but even a small mountain.

And the idea of the Babylonians that the Earth floats on the surface of the ocean, like a piece of wood, is also erroneous.

After all, the Earth is very heavy in order to float on water. Even if she could swim in some ocean, then the water of this ocean would also have to be supported by something.

The purpose of this work is to study the patterns of formation of the figure of the Earth using practical physical experiment and theoretical scientific data.

During the work the following tasks were solved:

Systematized theoretical material on the development of views on the true shape of the Earth.

2. The shape of our planet was experimentally studied with the help of physical instruments.

The tasks were solved by empirical and comparative analysis various data.

The relevance of this work lies in the fact that it carried out an extensive systematization of knowledge on the seemingly simplest topic; interdisciplinary connections are widely shown - the integration of several subjects into each other: physics and geography, history and geography.

EVIDENCE OF EARTH'S SPHERICITY.

People have long been interested in the question of the shape of the Earth. The origins of the idea of the spherical shape of the Earth are inextricably linked with the teachings of Pythagoras and his followers - the Pythagoreans: for the first time in the history of human thought, the idea of the sphericity of the Earth and symmetrically arranged spheres that make up the cosmos was logically followed.

Aristotle and his followers proved the sphericity of the Earth, which played a significant role in the development of geography as a specific system of knowledge.

Eratosthenes considered the sphericity of the Earth, realizing that only scientific proof the true shape of the planet may become the necessary foundation of geography.

By the way, Eratosthenes first introduced the term "geography" instead of the previously used ones.

You can verify the convexity of the Earth by observing how tall objects hide or appear on the line where the sky seems to converge with the earth's surface, that is, on the horizon line. Hills, forests, mountains hide it from us. But at sea, the horizon line is clearly visible.

That is why sailors were the first to notice that the earth's surface is convex.

Approaching the shore, the sailors saw that at first only the tops of the mountains were shown, and as they approached them, the mountains seemed to grow before their eyes, until their foot became visible.

Moving away from the coast, the opposite was observed - the mountains, as it were, plunged into the sea: first their foot and the structure on the coast disappeared from sight, and then disappeared from the eyes and the top.

If the Earth were flat, the mountains would not disappear from view, but would only become smaller as you move away from them.

They could be seen from hundreds of kilometers with the same ease as we see from hundreds of meters. ordinary houses. In reality, when the mountain disappears below the horizon, it cannot be seen even with the strongest telescope. But, if you climb to a high place, then the ship hiding behind the horizon can be seen again.

Climbing to high places (they can even be the roofs of houses), you can see that the horizon, as it were, is expanding.

The expansion of the horizon is one of the proofs of the convexity of the earth's surface: if the Earth were flat, this phenomenon would not be observed.

The second proof of the convexity of the earth's surface is the appearance of new stars above the horizon when moving along the meridian. If you go from Moscow to St. Petersburg, then in Tver the Polar Star will be higher above the horizon than in Moscow, and even higher in St. Petersburg.

This is because Tver is almost 20 to the north of Moscow, and St. Petersburg is 40.

Such observations show that the earth's surface everywhere - on land and at sea - is convex, not flat.

The third proof of the sphericity of the Earth is the appearance of the shadow of the Earth, which can be seen on a full moon, when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon.

Illuminated by the Sun, it casts a shadow into space that can fall on the Moon. Then a total or partial lunar eclipse occurs: the earth's shadow approaches the bright disk of the full moon, and the edge of the earth's shadow is always round, the same as that of the shadow falling from an orange on the wall.

The fourth proof appeared in the era of the Great geographical discoveries, during the journey of the Spanish navigator Ferdinand Magellan in 1519-1522. Sailing all the time to the west, he crossed Atlantic Ocean, circled South America through the strait named after him and out into the Pacific Ocean.

Sailing in one direction, the squadron crossed Indian Ocean and through the Cape of Good Hope she entered the Atlantic, that is, she sailed around the globe.

True, a trip around the world does not yet prove the sphericity of the Earth. If it had a shape like a zucchini or a cucumber, it could also be driven around.

The fifth proof is the circular line of the horizon. If the Earth were not close in shape to a ball, then the horizon would not be in the form of a regular circle.

This proof allowed the German scientist Martin Beheim in the 15th century to build a model of the globe - a globe.

The sixth evidence - modern - are photographs of the Earth from space.

THEORETICAL: THE TRUE SHAPE OF THE EARTH

However, a glance from interplanetary stations and orbiting satellites made it possible to confirm that our Earth is far from an ideal ball.

This was first noticed in 1672 by the French astronomer Charles Richet. And they helped him do it. watch! Ordinary walkers with a pendulum. The scientist noticed that his watch, which was running properly in Paris, suddenly began to fall behind when moving to South America. At first, Richet suggested that the heat was to blame, because in Cayenne, located near the equator, it is much hotter than in Paris: “Under the influence of temperature, the metal expanded, the pendulum became longer, so the clock began to fall behind,” reasoned the researcher.

However, the calculation showed that the clock began to lag behind by 4 minutes! per day, as happened in practice, it is necessary that the difference in temperatures be. 2000!

The true cause of the paradox was explained only in 1787 by Isaac Newton.

He reasoned that the reason for the clock lag is the rotation of the Earth around its axis (at the equator, the linear speed is slightly higher than in Paris), as well as the oblateness of our planet at the poles. The rotation of the Earth on its axis causes it to flatten at the poles so that all points on the equator are 21 km farther from the center than at the poles.

Thus, the Earth in its shape resembles a tangerine, although it is much less compressed.

Newton's calculations were refined in the 18th century by the English scientist MacLauren. He proved that the Earth has the shape of a melon - a spheroid.

In 1834, through rather complex calculations, the German scientist Jacobi found out that another name is more suitable for the shape of the Earth - a triaxial ellipsoid.

Further amendments complicated the picture: some "pear-shaped" planet was noted.

The study of the shape of the Earth showed that the Earth is compressed not only along the axis of rotation, but also in the plane of the equator, that is, in other words, the diameters of the equator are not the same length.

This compression is negligible, but it exists. But the Earth is not as smooth as a billiard ball. It has hills mountain ranges, valleys, depressions of the seas and oceans. Therefore, scientists take the level of the ocean for the earth's surface. The same level of the oceans can be mentally extended to the continents, if all the continents are cut through such deep channels that all the oceans and seas would be connected to each other. The level in these channels was taken as the surface of the Earth.

It is slightly different from the surface of a compressed ellipsoid.

This true form of the Earth was called GEOID (geo - Earth, id - form).

CHAPTER 3 PRACTICAL: THE TRUE FORM OF THE EARTH

The earth rotates around its axis. Experimentally, one can observe how the shape of a spherical body changes when it rotates around its axis.

Let's take a machine, which is an auxiliary device that serves to set in rotation two flexible hoops connected to each other and fixed by a vertical rod. The result was a model of a sphere, where the plates symbolize the meridians, and the connecting rod symbolizes the axis of the Earth.

The top attachment point can move freely along the rod. Install the device in the centrifugal machine and start the rotation. We will see how the hoops begin to flatten. And the faster we turn the knob, the more flattened the "poles" become.

Experience 2. So, the rotation of the Earth was reflected in its shape. Why this happens is shown by another experiment with a drop of vegetable oil swirling in a mixture of water and alcohol.

Pour into a glass a mixture of water and alcohol in such a proportion that vegetable oil did not float or sink in it.

Only then will the oil take the form of a ball. Then we carefully introduce a light pinwheel on a thin rod into the oil ball. When the turntable rotates, the oil ball gradually begins to rotate, and the faster it rotates, the more it flattens along its axis.

Thus, the oblateness of the Earth is explained by its rotation.

And the Earth, making a complete rotation around its axis in 24 hours, as a rotating body has the shape of a spheroid, or an ellipsoid of revolution, and not a sphere.

Other rotating celestial bodies are similarly flattened.

Jupiter, for example, is very flattened due to its high rotation rate (one revolution in 10 hours). And the Moon, which makes one revolution around its axis in one month, is practically not flattened and has the shape of a ball.

CONCLUSION.

Thus, having studied the evidence for the sphericity of the Earth, I came to the conclusion that the Earth, like all living things, has only its inherent form, the change of which is influenced by various powers, including the speed of rotation around its axis and the Sun, the attraction of the Moon and other planets.

And there is no doubt that the Earth is a rotating ball.

At the same time, it obeys the same movements as an ordinary spinning top.

Therefore, we can say that the Earth is a giant top, the changes in the speed of which did not go unnoticed for the formation of its shape.

Aristotle Merits in Geography

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MBOU secondary school №32

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2. Works of Aristotle in the field of geography.

3. The idea of Aristotle about the sphericity of the earth.

1. Brief biography.

4. Aristotle and geographical areas.

6.Literature

Short biography.

The ancient Greek thinker Aristotle was born in 384 BC in the city of Stagira in Macedonia. Aristotle's father was a court physician, from whom his son received his first knowledge of medicine and biology. At the age of 17, Aristotle went to Athens to study there, at the academy of the famous Plato.

Short biography.

In 334 BC. Aristotle founded his school in Athens. Here, Aristotle gave lessons to his students. The works of Aristotle himself cover many sciences. Aristotle wrote treatises on astronomy, biology, medicine, on the structure of the cosmos and the structure of the Earth, developed the rules of human behavior in society, created his own doctrine of art

Works of Aristotle in the field of geography.

In his works: "Meteorology", "On the Sky", "On the Sea", "On the Main Laws of Nature", "History of the Animal World", "On Plants", etc., he showed a variety of geographical information. He gave convincing evidence of the sphericity of the Earth, which is still being cited today, made a conclusion about the existence of climatic zones on Earth, explained the origin of winds, storms, meteors, earthquakes, tides and other phenomena; described about 500 species of animals and made an attempt to classify them.

Aristotle's idea of the sphericity of the earth.

As an argument about the sphericity of the Earth, Aristotle drew attention to the fact that during an eclipse of the moon, the earth's shadow has the shape of a circle.

Aristotle and geographic areas

Aristotle was the first to put forward a hypothesis about the existence of geographical zones. He believed that the earth was divided into three types climatic zones based on their distance from the equator. Thinking that the area near the equator was too hot for habitation, Aristotle singled out the region on both sides of the equator (23.5° N - 23.5° S) and called it the "Hot Zone". He believed that there was permafrost from the Arctic Circle to the Pole.

Aristotle and geographical areas.

He named this uninhabitable area the "Polar Zone". The only place that Aristotle considered acceptable for life was the "Temperate Zone", located between the "Polar Zone" and the "Hot Zone". One of the reasons Aristotle believed that the Temperate Zone was the best place for life, could be the fact that he himself lived in this zone. As knowledge of the earth's geography improved, a second "Temperate Zone" was identified south of the equator, and a second "Polar Zone" around Antarctica.

Aristotle and the causes of earthquakes.

In search of the causes of earthquakes, Aristotle turned to the bowels of the Earth. He believed that atmospheric vortices penetrate into the earth, in which there are many voids and through cracks. Whirlwinds, he thought, are intensified by fire and seek their way out, thus causing earthquakes and sometimes volcanic eruptions.