The Copernican Revolution: Putting the Earth into Motion

This text provides an accessible historical account of how people came to realize that we are on a big spinning ball orbiting the sun. While most of the text naturally focuses on the works of Copernicus and Galileo, several early chapters are devoted to developing a full appreciation for the earth-centered cosmos. The book begins with Babylonian and Egyptian contributions to early science and ends with a brief account of Newtonian physics and the later proofs for the Copernican System. It incorporates the latest scholarship on the episode and includes an extensive bibliography and endnotes for interested readers.