Were Japan and China right before Galileo?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kelley
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Kelley

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so, the western world, under the censorship of the catholic church, believed in a geocentric world view - that the universe rotated around a stationary earth - until galileo proved the copernican heliocentric theory in 1633... well, not even, cause the church reacted badly and galileo was prosecuted... anyway...question is, what did china and japan think? did they have it right from the start, or was there a gelileo moment?
 
Don't know about what sort of model the Asian astronomers had devised, but I did want to point out that Galileo's ideas were rejected by the scientists of his day too - not just the Church.

Galileo put forth a theory the the planets moved in circular orbits, and because of his error, the previous geocentric model (even though mathematically unwieldy) actually worked out better! It wasn't until Kepler came along and realized that the planets moved in elliptical orbits that it all worked out well.
 
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