Lunar Research
Horrocks was the first to demonstrate that the Moon moved in an elliptical path around the Earth. He also claimed that comets followed elliptical orbits and supported his theory by analogy with the conical pendulum. He noted that if the bob was drawn back and released then it followed an elliptical path, and that the major axis rotated in the direction of revolution exactly as did the apsides of the moon's orbit. He anticipated Isaac Newton in suggesting an influence on the orbit from the Sun as well as the Earth and in the Principia Newton acknowledged Horrocks's work in relation to the theory of the Moon. In the final months of his life he also made detailed study of tides, in an attempt to explain the nature of lunar causation of tidal movements.
Read more about this topic: Jeremiah Horrocks
Famous quotes containing the words lunar and/or research:
“A bird half wakened in the lunar noon
Sang halfway through its little inborn tune.”
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“... research is never completed ... Around the corner lurks another possibility of interview, another book to read, a courthouse to explore, a document to verify.”
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