Ptolemy
A medieval artist's rendition of Claudius Ptolemaeus.
Born	after 85 AD Roman Province of Egypt
Died	165 AD Roman Province of Egypt
Occupation	mathematician, geographer, astronomer, astrologer

Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος Klaúdios Ptolemaĩos; after 83 – 161 AD), known in English as Ptolemy, was an ancient mathematician, geographer, astronomer, and astrologer. Year 85 was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar. Ægyptus redirects here See Egypt Province for the province of the Ottoman Empire Ægyptus redirects here See Egypt Province for the province of the Ottoman Empire A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. A geographer is a Scientist whose area of study is Geography, the study of Earth 's physical environment and Human habitat Historically Astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky while Astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena An astrologer practices one or more forms of Astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a Horoscope for the time of an event such as a person's birth and interprets Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Year 83 was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar. A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. A geographer is a Scientist whose area of study is Geography, the study of Earth 's physical environment and Human habitat Historically Astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky while Astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena An astrologer practices one or more forms of Astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a Horoscope for the time of an event such as a person's birth and interprets He lived in Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria in 161 AD. Ægyptus redirects here See Egypt Province for the province of the Ottoman Empire The Thebaid or Thebais (Θηβαΐς or Θηβαΐδα is the region of Ancient Egypt containing the thirteen southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt Ptolemais Hermiou is a city in Greco-Roman Egypt, established as a colony on the west bank of the Nile by Ptolemy I Soter Alexandria ( Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه Eskendereyya; Standard Arabic: ar الإسكندرية Al-Iskandariyya; Ἀλεξάνδρεια ^[1]

Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises, three of which would be of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest (in Greek, Η Μεγάλη Σύνταξις, "The Great Treatise", originally Μαθηματικἠ Σύνταξις, "Mathematical Treatise"). Almagest is the Latin form of the Arabic name ( الكتاب المجسطي, al-kitabu-l-mijisti, i The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The Geographia or Geography is Ptolemy 's main work besides the Almagest. In modern Olympic and amateur Wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling is a particular style and variation The third is the astrological treatise known as the Tetrabiblos ("Four books") in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. Claudius Ptolemaeus ( Greek: Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; after 83 &ndash ca Horoscopic astrology is a form of Astrology which uses a Horoscope, a visual representation of the heavens for a specific moment in time in order to interpret the The Greek Philosopher Aristotle ( 384 BC – 322 BC) developed many theories on the nature of Physics that are completely different For the current in the 19th century German idealism see Naturphilosophie Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature (from

Name and origins

Beyond his being considered a member of Alexandria's Greek society, few details of Ptolemy's life are known. The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions He wrote in Ancient Greek; some scholars have concluded that Ptolemy was a Greek,^{[2] [3]} and others, a Hellenized Egyptian. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Hellenization (or Hellenisation) is a term used to describe the spread of Greek culture. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now ^[4][3][5][6] He was often known in later Arabic sources as "the Upper Egyptian",^[7] suggesting that he may have had origins in southern Egypt. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Upper Egypt (صعيد مصر Sa'id Misr) is a narrow strip of land that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan to the area between This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. ^[6] Ptolemy is also known to have used Babylonian astronomical data. Babylonian astronomy refers to the astronomical theories and methods that were developed in ancient Mesopotamia, the "land between the rivers" Tigris ^[8][9]

Ptolemy is a Greek name. The name Ptolemy or Ptolemaeus comes from the Greek Ptolemaios, which means warlike It occurs once in Greek mythology, and is of Homeric form. It was quite common among the Macedonian upper class at the time of Alexander the Great, and there are several among Alexander's army, one of whom made himself King of Egypt: Ptolemy I Soter; all the Kings after him, until Rome conquered Egypt, were also Ptolemies. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' For the astronomer see Ptolemy; for others named "Ptolemy" or "Ptolemaeus" see Ptolemy (disambiguation. The Ptolemaic dynasty (sometimes also known as the Lagids, from the name of Ptolemy I's father Lagus) was a Hellenistic Macedonian royal family There is no evidence so far on the subject of Ptolemy's ancestry, but most scholars and historians alike consider it unlikely that Ptolemy was related to the royal family.

Claudius is a Roman name; it implies Ptolemy was a Roman citizen. It would have suited custom if the first Ptolemy who became a citizen (whether it was he or an ancestor) took the nomen from a Roman called Claudius, who was in some sense responsible for the citizenship. By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a Name in Ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts ( tria If, as was not uncommon, this Roman was the Emperor, the citizenship would have been granted between 14 and 68 AD, when the Claudii were Emperors. Year 68 was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar. The Julio-Claudian Dynasty refers to the first five Roman Emperors: Augustus (Octavian Tiberius, Caligula (Gaius Claudius, and The astronomer would also have had a praenomen, which remains unknown. By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a Name in Ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts ( tria . .

Astronomy

Further information: Almagest

The Almagest is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Almagest is the Latin form of the Arabic name ( الكتاب المجسطي, al-kitabu-l-mijisti, i Almagest is the Latin form of the Arabic name ( الكتاب المجسطي, al-kitabu-l-mijisti, i Babylonian astronomers had developed arithmetical techniques for calculating astronomical phenomena; Greek astronomers such as Hipparchus had produced geometric models for calculating celestial motions; Ptolemy, however, claimed to have derived his geometrical models from selected astronomical observations by his predecessors spanning more than 800 years, though astronomers have for centuries suspected that his models' parameters were adopted independently of observations. Babylonian astronomy refers to the astronomical theories and methods that were developed in ancient Mesopotamia, the "land between the rivers" Tigris Hipparchus ( Greek; ca 190 BC &ndash ca 120 BC was a Greek Astronomer, Geographer, and Mathematician of the Hellenistic Ptolemy presented his astronomical models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. ^[10] The Almagest also contains a star catalogue, which is an appropriated version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus. A star catalogue, or star catalog, is an Astronomical catalogue that lists Stars In Astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue Its list of forty-eight constellations is ancestral to the modern system of constellations, but unlike the modern system they did not cover the whole sky (only the sky Hipparchus could see). In common usage a constellation is a group of celestial bodies that are connected together in some arrangement typically stars to form a visible figure or picture Through the Middle Ages it was spoken of as the authoritative text on astronomy, with its author becoming an almost mythical figure, called Ptolemy, King of Alexandria. ^[11] The Almagest was preserved, like most of Classical Greek science, in Arabic manuscripts (hence its familiar name). Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Because of its reputation, it was widely sought and was translated twice into Latin in the 12th century, once in Sicily and again in Spain. The Renaissance of the 12th century saw a major search by European scholars for new learning which led them to the Arabic fringes of Europe especially to Islamic ^[12] Ptolemy's model, like those of his predecessors, was geocentric and was almost universally accepted until an equally systematic presentation of a heliocentric geometrical model by Nicolaus Copernicus. In Astronomy, the geocentric model of the Universe is the superseded theory that the Earth is the center of the universe and other In Astronomy, heliocentrism is the theory that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System.

His Planetary Hypotheses went beyond the mathematical model of the Almagest to present a physical realization of the universe as a set of nested spheres,^[13] in which he used the epicycles of his planetary model to compute the dimensions of the universe. He estimated the Sun was at an average distance of 1210 Earth radii while the radius of the sphere of the fixed stars was 20,000 times the radius of the Earth. ^[14]

Ptolemy presented a useful tool for astronomical calculations in his Handy Tables, which tabulated all the data needed to compute the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets, the rising and setting of the stars, and eclipses of the Sun and Moon. An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when one Celestial object moves into the shadow of another Ptolemy's Handy Tables provided the model for later astronomical tables or zījes. Zīj ( Arabic: زيج) is the generic name applied to Arabic astronomical books that tabulate parameters used for astronomical calculations of In the Phaseis (Risings of the Fixed Stars) Ptolemy gave a parapegma, a star calendar or almanac based on the appearances and disappearances of stars over the course of the solar year. The word Calendar consist of two words 1 Cal ( in Pashto means Year in Hindi and Persian is Sal- also means Year ALMANAC is the name of a major Breast cancer trial The Acronym stands for "Axillary Lymphatic Mapping Against Nodal Axillary Clearance

His model and computational methods were adopted and modified in the Arabic speaking world and in India, since they were of sufficient accuracy to satisfy the needs of astronomers, astrologers, timekeepers, calendar keepers, and navigators. Indian astronomy —the earliest textual mention of which is given in the religious literature of India (2nd millennium BCE—became an established tradition by the 1st millennium BCE A navigator is the person onboard a ship or aircraft responsible for its Navigation.

Geography

Main article: Geographia (Ptolemy)

Ptolemy's other main work is his Geographia. The Geographia or Geography is Ptolemy 's main work besides the Almagest. This too is a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time. Geography (from Greek γεωγραφία - geografia) is the study of the Earth and its lands features inhabitants and phenomena The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial He relied somewhat on the work of an earlier geographer, Marinos of Tyre, and on gazetteers of the Roman and ancient Persian Empire, but most of his sources beyond the perimeter of the Empire were unreliable. Marinus of Tyre, (ca 70 - 130 AD Greek Μαρίνος ο Τύριος also rendered as Marinos of Tyre) was a Phoenician {Fact|date=April A gazetteer is a geographical Dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names (see Toponomy) used in conjunction The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia

The first part of the Geographia is a discussion of the data and of the methods he used. The Geographia or Geography is Ptolemy 's main work besides the Almagest. As with the model of the solar system in the Almagest, Ptolemy put all this information into a grand scheme. Following Marinos, he assigned coordinates to all the places and geographic features he knew, in a grid that spanned the globe. In Mathematics and its applications a coordinate system is a system for assigning an n - Tuple of Numbers or scalars to each point Latitude was measured from the equator, as it is today, but Ptolemy preferred in book 8 to express it as the length of the longest day rather than degrees of arc (the length of the midsummer day increases from 12h to 24h as you go from the equator to the polar circle). Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi ( Φ) gives the location of a place on Earth (or other planetary body north or south of the The equator (sometimes referred to colloquially as "the Line") is the intersection of the Earth 's surface with the plane perpendicular to the This article describes the unit of angle For other meanings see Degree. Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice A polar circle is either the Arctic Circle or the Antarctic Circle. In books 2 through 7, he used degrees and put the meridian of 0 longitude at the most western land he knew, the "Blessed Islands", probably the Cape Verde islands (not the Canary Islands, as long accepted) as suggested by the location of the six dots labelled the "FORTUNATA" islands near the left extreme of the blue sea of Ptolemy's map here reproduced. This article is about the geographical concept For other uses of the word see Meridian. Longitude (ˈlɒndʒɪˌtjuːd or ˈlɒŋgɪˌtjuːd symbolized by the Greek character Lambda (λ is the east-west Geographic coordinate measurement In the Fortunate Isles also called the Isles (or Islands) of the Blessed (μακάρων νη̂σοι makárôn nêsoi) Heroes and The Republic of Cape Verde ( Portuguese: Cabo Verde, 'kabu 'veɾdɨ is a Republic located on an Archipelago in the Macaronesia The Canary Islands ( English pronunciation kəˈnæriː ˈaɪləndz Spanish: Islas Canarias, ˈizlas kaˈnarjas are a Spanish

A 15th century manuscript copy of the Ptolemy world map, reconstituted from Ptolemy's Geographia (circa 150), indicating the countries of "Serica" and "Sinae" (China) at the extreme east, beyond the island of "Taprobane" (Sri Lanka, oversized) and the "Aurea Chersonesus" (Malay Peninsula). PtomelyAsiaDetailjpg|thumb|350px|Detail of East and Southeast Asia in Ptolemy 's world map Seres (Gr Σῆρες, Lat Sērēs) was the ancient Greek and Roman name for the inhabitants of the northwestern part of modern China China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula (Semenanjung Tanah Melayu (คาบสมุทรมลายู is a major Peninsula located in Southeast

Ptolemy also devised and provided instructions on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world (oikoumenè) and of the Roman provinces. Ecumene (also spelled œcumene or oikoumene) a term originally used in the Greco-Roman world to refer to the inhabited earth (or at least the known In the second part of the Geographia he provided the necessary topographic lists, and captions for the maps. Topography ( topo-, "place" and graphia, "writing" is the study of Earth 's Surface features or those of Planets His oikoumenè spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Blessed Islands in the Atlantic Ocean to the middle of China, and about 80 degrees of latitude from The Shetlands to anti-Meroe (east coast of Africa); Ptolemy was well aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe, and an erroneous extension of China southward blocked off any awareness of the Pacific Ocean. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Shetland (formerly spelled Zetland, from etland; Old Norse non Hjaltland; Sealtainn is an Archipelago off the northeast coast of

The maps in surviving manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia, however, date only from about 1300, after the text was rediscovered by Maximus Planudes. Maximus Planudes (c 1260 &ndash 1330 was a Byzantine Greek Grammarian and theologian who lived and worked during the reigns of Michael VIII Palaeologus It seems likely that the topographical tables in books 2-7 are cumulative texts - texts which were altered and added to as new knowledge became available in the centuries after Ptolemy (Bagrow 1945). This means that information contained in different parts of the Geography is likely to be of different date.

A printed Ptolemaic map from the 15th century

Maps based on scientific principles had been made since the time of Eratosthenes (3rd century BC), but Ptolemy improved projections. A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, Regions, and Themes Eratosthenes of Cyrene ( Greek; 276 BC - 194 BC was a Greek Mathematician, Poet, athlete, Geographer and The 3rd century BC started the first day of 300 BC and ended the last day of 201 BC A map projection is any method of representing the Surface of a sphere or other shape on a plane. It is known that a world map based on the Geographia was on display in Autun, France in late Roman times. Autun is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in Burgundy in eastern France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. In the 15th century Ptolemy's Geographia began to be printed with engraved maps; the earliest printed edition with engraved maps was produced in Bologna in 1477, followed quickly by a Roman edition in 1478 (Campbell, 1987). An edition printed at Ulm in 1482, including woodcut maps, was the first one printed north of the Alps. Ulm (ˈʊlm is a City in the German Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The maps look distorted as compared to modern maps, because Ptolemy's data were inaccurate. One reason is that Ptolemy estimated the size of the Earth as too small: while Eratosthenes found 700 stadia for a great circle degree on the globe, in the Geographia Ptolemy uses 500 stadia. Eratosthenes of Cyrene ( Greek; 276 BC - 194 BC was a Greek Mathematician, Poet, athlete, Geographer and It is highly probable that these were the same stadion since Ptolemy switched from the former scale to the latter, between the Syntaxis and the Geographia and severely readjusted longitude degrees accordingly. If they both used the Attic stadion of about 185 meters, then the older estimate is 1/6 too large, and Ptolemy's value is 1/6 too small, a difference recently explained as due to ancient scientists' use of simple methods of measuring the earth, which were corrupted either high or low by a factor of 5/6, due to air's bending of horizontal light rays by 1/6 of the earth's curvature. The ancient Greek system of weights and measures was built mainly upon the Egyptian, and formed the basis of the later Roman system. See also Ancient Greek units of measurement and History of geodesy. The ancient Greek system of weights and measures was built mainly upon the Egyptian, and formed the basis of the later Roman system. See also the main article on Geodesy. Humanity has always been interested in the Earth.

Because Ptolemy derived many of his key latitudes from crude longest day values, his latitudes are erroneous on average by roughly a degree (2 degrees for Byzantium, 4 degrees for Carthage), though capable ancient astronomers knew their latitudes to more like a minute. (Ptolemy's own latitude was in error by 14'. ) He agreed (Geographia 1. 4) that longitude was best determined by simultaneous observation of lunar eclipses, yet he was so out of touch with the scientists of his day that he knew of no such data more recent than 500 years ago (Arbela eclipse). When switching from 700 stadia per degree to 500, he (or Marinos) expanded longitude differences between cities accordingly (a point 1st realized by P. Gosselin in 1790), resulting in serious over-stretching of the earth's east-west scale in degrees, though not distance. Achieving highly precise longitude remained a problem in geography until the invention of the marine chronometer at the end of the 18th century. A marine chronometer is a timekeeper precise enough to be used as a portable Time standard; it can therefore be used to determine Longitude by means of Celestial It must be added that his original topographic list cannot be reconstructed: the long tables with numbers were transmitted to posterity through copies containing many scribal errors, and people have always been adding or improving the topographic data: this is a testimony to the persistent popularity of this influential work in the history of cartography. Cartography or mapmaking (in Greek chartis = map and graphein = write has been an integral part of the human story for a long time (maybe 8000 years

Astrology

The mathematician Claudius Ptolemy 'the Alexandrian' as imagined by a 16th century artist

Ptolemy's treatise on astrology, the Tetrabiblos, was the most popular astrological work of antiquity and also enjoyed great influence in the Islamic world and the medieval Latin West. Astrology (from Greek grc ἄστρον astron, "constellation star" and grc -λογία -logia) is a group of Systems For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings The Tetrabiblos is an extensive and continually reprinted treatise on the ancient principles of horoscopic astrology in four books (Greek tetra means "four", biblos is "book"). Horoscopic astrology is a form of Astrology which uses a Horoscope, a visual representation of the heavens for a specific moment in time in order to interpret the That it did not quite attain the unrivalled status of the Almagest was perhaps because it did not cover some popular areas of the subject, particularly electional astrology (interpreting astrological charts for a particular moment to determine the outcome of a course of action to be initiated at that time), and medical astrology. Almagest is the Latin form of the Arabic name ( الكتاب المجسطي, al-kitabu-l-mijisti, i Electional astrology is a branch found in most systems of astrology Medical astrology (traditionally known as Iatromathematics) is an ancient medical system that associates various parts of the body diseases and drugs as under the influence

The great popularity that the Tetrabiblos did possess might be attributed to its nature as an exposition of the art of astrology and as a compendium of astrological lore, rather than as a manual. It speaks in general terms, avoiding illustrations and details of practice. Ptolemy was concerned to defend astrology by defining its limits, compiling astronomical data that he believed was reliable and dismissing practices (such as considering the numerological significance of names) that he believed to be without sound basis. An ephemeris (plural ephemerides; from the Greek word ἐφήμερος ephemeros "daily" is a table of values that gives the positions of Numerology is any of many Systems Traditions or Beliefs in a mystical or Esoteric relationship between Numbers and physical

Much of the content of the Tetrabiblos may well have been collected from earlier sources; Ptolemy's achievement was to order his material in a systematic way, showing how the subject could, in his view, be rationalized. It is, indeed, presented as the second part of the study of astronomy of which the Almagest was the first, concerned with the influences of the celestial bodies in the sublunar sphere. EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 Thus explanations of a sort are provided for the astrological effects of the planets, based upon their combined effects of heating, cooling, moistening, and drying. A planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU is a celestial body Orbiting a Star or stellar remnant that is

Ptolemy's astrological outlook was quite practical: he thought that astrology was like medicine, that is conjectural, because of the many variable factors to be taken into account: the race, country, and upbringing of a person affects an individual's personality as much if not more than the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets at the precise moment of their birth, so Ptolemy saw astrology as something to be used in life but in no way relied on entirely. Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of categorizing Humans into Populations or groups on the basis of various sets In Political geography and International politics, a country is a Political division of a geographical entity The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature" i

Music

Ptolemy also wrote an influential work, Harmonics, on music theory and the mathematics of music. Music theory is the field of study that deals with the Mechanics of music and how Music works After criticizing the approaches of his predecessors, Ptolemy argued for basing musical intervals on mathematical ratios (in contrast to the followers of Aristoxenus and in agreement with the followers of Pythagoras) backed up by empirical observation (in contrast to the overly theoretical approach of the Pythagoreans). For the 1st century physician of Asia Minor see Aristoxenus (physician. "Pythagoras of Samos" redirects here For the Samian statuary of the same name see Pythagoras (sculptor. Pythagoreanism is a term used for the Esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers the Pythagoreans who were much influenced Ptolemy wrote about how musical notes could be translated into mathematical equations and vice versa in Harmonics. This is called Pythagorean tuning because it was first discovered by Pythagoras. However, Pythagoras believed that the mathematics of music should be based on the specific ratio of 3:2 whereas Ptolemy merely believed that it should just generally involve tetrachords and octaves. Traditionally a tetrachord is a series of four tones filling in the interval of a perfect fourth a 43 frequency proportion In Music, an octave ( is the the use of which is "common in most musical systems He presented his own divisions of the tetrachord and the octave, which he derived with the help of a monochord. A monochord is an ancient musical and scientific Laboratory instrument. Ptolemy's astronomical interests also appeared in a discussion of the "music of the spheres. "

Other works

His Optics, a work which survives only in a poor Arabic translation and in about twenty manuscripts of a Latin translation of the Arabic, made by Eugene of Palermo (circa 1154). In it he writes about properties of light, including reflection, refraction, and color. Light, or visible light, is Electromagnetic radiation of a Wavelength that is visible to the Human eye (about 400–700 Reflection is the change in direction of a Wave front at an interface between two different media so that the wave front returns into the medium from which Refraction is the change in direction of a Wave due to a change in its Speed. The work is a significant part of the early history of optics. Optics began with the development of lenses by the Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians followed by theories on Light and vision developed by ancient

Named after Ptolemy

• Ptolemaeus crater on the Moon. Ptolemaeus is an ancient lunar Impact crater close to the center of the near side
• Ptolemaeus crater [2] on Mars.
• The asteroid 4001 Ptolemaeus. 4001 Ptolemaeus (1949 PV is a Main-belt Asteroid discovered on August 02, 1949 by K
• A character in the fantasy series The Bartimaeus Trilogy. The Bartimaeus Trilogy is a Fantasy series by Jonathan Stroud and was published as a series of three novels between 2003 and 2005
• The flagship carrier of Celestial Being from Mobile Suit Gundam 00, the Ptolemaios. This is a list of fictional States and factions in Mobile Suit Gundam 00. is the latest television Anime of Sunrise's long-running Gundam franchise
• A song by Aphex Twin.

Footnotes

See also

• Ptolemy world map - map of the ancient world as described by Ptolemaeus. PtomelyAsiaDetailjpg|thumb|350px|Detail of East and Southeast Asia in Ptolemy 's world map
• Ptolemy's theorem - mathematical theorem described by Ptolemaeus. In Mathematics, Ptolemy's theorem is a relation in Euclidean geometry between the four sides and two diagonals or chords of a Cyclic quadrilateral.
• Ptolemy Cluster - star cluster described by Ptolemaeus. Messier 7 (also known as M7, NGC 6475, or the Ptolemy Cluster) is an Open cluster in the Constellation Scorpius.
• Ptolemy's Canon - a dated list of kings used by ancient astronomers. The Canon of Kings was a dated list of kings used by ancient Astronomers as a convenient means to date astronomical phenomena such as Eclipses The Canon was preserved

References

Texts and translations

• Berggren, J. Lennart and Jones, Alexander. 2000. Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01042-0.
• Nobbe, C. F. A. , ed. 1843. Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia. 3 vols. Leipzig: Carolus Tauchnitus. (The most recent edition of the complete Greek text)
• Stevenson, Edward Luther. Trans. and ed. 1932. Claudius Ptolemy: The Geography. New York Public Library. Reprint: Dover, 1991. (This is the only complete English translation of Ptolemy's most famous work. Unfortunately, it is marred by numerous mistakes and the placenames are given in Latinised forms, rather than in the original Greek).
• Stückelberger, Alfred and Graßhoff, Gerd, eds. 2006. Ptolemaios, Handbuch der Geographie, Griechisch-Deutsch. 2 vols. Basel. Schwabe Verlag. ISBN-13 978-3-7965-2148-5. (Massive 1018 pp. scholarly edition by a team of a dozen scholars that takes account of all known manuscripts, with facing Greek and German text, footnotes on manuscript variations, color maps, and a CD with the geographical data)

Other references

• Bagrow, L. 1945. "The Origin of Ptolemy's Geographia". Geografiska Annaler 27:318-387.
• Campbell, T. 1987. The Earliest Printed Maps. British Museum Press.
• Neugebauer, Otto 1975 A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy. 3 vols, Berlin and New York: Sprnger Verlag.
• Taub, Liba Chia 1993 Ptolemy's Universe: The Natural Philosophical and Ethical Foundations of Ptolemy's Astronomy. Chicago: Open Court Press. ISBN 0-8126-9229-2

External links

Primary sources

• Ptolemy's Almagest. PDF scans of Heiberg's Greek edition, now in the public domain (Classical Greek)
• Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos at LacusCurtius (English translation, with introductory material)
• Ptolemy's Geography at LacusCurtius (English translation, incomplete)
• Extracts of Ptolemy on the country of the Seres (China) (English translation)
• Geographia (the Balkan Provinces, with old maps) at Sorin Olteanu's LTDM Project (soltdm.com)
• Amalgest (Greek) with preface (Latin) @ archive.org

Secondary material

• Flash animation of Ptolemy's universe. (best in Internet Explorer)
• Ptolemy at SkyScript - The Life and Work of Ptolemy
• Alexander Jones, "Ptolemy and his Geography"
• Ptolemy biography (Bill Arnett's site)
• Ptolemy's Geography - Selected problems of Ptolemy's Geography (currently in German)
• Ptolemy's Geography of Northwestern Europe
• History of Cartography including a discussion of the Geographica
• Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy): Representation, Understanding, and Mathematical Labeling of the Spherical Earth
• Literature about the Geography (Geographike Hyphegesis) of Claudius Ptolemy