Visualizing Ancient Data

Planetariums as Time Machines

James Hedberg

City College of New York

Dept. of Physics

Director of CCNY Planetarium

Mode of investigation

QEF

Euclid: Book 1, Proposition 1

"It is required to construct an equilateral triangle ..."

Quod erat faciendum

Meno, a Platonic Dialogue

The Meno is a dialogue written by the Greek Philosopher Plato in which Socrates discusses aspects of knowledge with Meno, and others. During one section, Socrates is able to help a servant boy recollect somewhat complicated aspect of Geometry the he did not previously know. In so doing, Socrates gives a demonstration of his idea of Anamnesis - a theory of knowledge in which learning consists of recollecting knowledge already within everyone. What's interesting is not so much his theory of knowledge, but that the way he chooses to demonstrate it is by using a geometric figure.

Socrates, by drawing a figure on the sand, is able to get the servant boy, who is admittedly unlearned in geometry to arrive at a simplified version of the Pythagorean Theorem: $A^2 + B^2 = C^2$. While it may seem obvious and trivial to our well-educated minds, elements of geometry like this were fairly far from the everyday life of a servant boy in ancient Greece.

This is an early example of the power of visualization when explaining. Let's looks at a few more examples from ancient times.

Rule #14: The problem should be re-expressed in terms of the real extension of bodies and should be pictured in our imagination entirely by means of bare figures. Thus it will be perceived much more distinctly by our intellect.

Rule #15: It is usually helpful, also, to draw these diagrams and observe them through the external senses, so that by this means our thought can more easily remain attentive.

Descartes, Rules for the Direction of the Mind, 1625

Descartes

Curve drawing with sticks → analytic geometry

Sculpture

This plot has coordinates volume (x), entropy (y), and energy (z). 1874

J. C. Maxwell's Thermodynamic Surface

Visualizations of Experimental Data

Star Map

Dunhuang Star Chart, ~ 700 AD

Telescope

Microscope

Sometimes we are deceived

Michael Faraday - Iron Filing diagram. 1851

Credit: Royal Institution

SPM

Iron Atoms on Copper surface (1993)

Visuals for Learning

The Periodic Table

Lewis Structures

Biology

Physics

Scientific Visualization

Secrets in the basement

The Dome - A history

The Atwood Sphere

1913 Image Credit: Adler Planetarium Archives

First Planetarium Projector — The Zeiss Model 1

Zeiss Archives

VR

Same technology - just different displays.

Technical

History

For [the Astronomer's] purpose is not to tell us in which way the spheres truly are, but to posit an astronomical system in which it would be possible for the motions to be circular and uniform and to correspond to what is apprehended through sight, regardless of whether or not things are thus in fact.

Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed

The theory of quantum electrodynamics describes Nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And it agrees fully with experiment. So I hope you can accept Nature as She is—absurd.

Feynman, QED

Immersive + Sci Viz + History

Thuban: The old north star.

Establish our coordinates

Ecliptic Grid

Daily Motion in the time of Ptolemy

Tycho Brahe

Uraniborg and Stjerneborg (Castle of the Stars)

Telescopes!

From The Sidereus Nuncius

Linda Hall Library

From The Sidereus Nuncius, vs. NASA Dial-A-Moon

Linda Hall Library

Planets

One of the worst data-viz episodes in recent memory.

Tell the Truth^*

Other Systems to immerse ourselves in?

Archeo-Astronomy / Anthropology
Condensed Matter
Biology

Short Vertical Videos

@ccnyplanetarium

DIY / Tools

and more...

CCNY Planetarium

References

Duke, D. (n.d.). The Measurement Method of the Almagest Stars.

Duke, D. W. (2002). Associations Between the Ancient Star Catalogues. Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 56(5), 435–450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s004070200051

Gingerich, O., & Van Helden, A. (2003). From OCCHIALE to Printed Page: The Making of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius. Journal for the History of Astronomy, 34(3), 251–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/002182860303400301

Kraus, M., Klein, K., Fuchs, J., Keim, D., Schreiber, F., & Sedlmair, M. (2021). The Value of Immersive Visualization. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 41(4), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCG.2021.3075258

Kwasnitschka, T. (2017). Planetariums — not just for kids. Nature, 544(7651), 395–395. https://doi.org/10.1038/544395a

Rawlins, D., & Pickering, K. (2001). Astronomical orientation of the pyramids. Nature, 412(6848), 699–699. https://doi.org/10.1038/35089138

Spence, K. (2000). Ancient Egyptian chronology and the astronomical orientation of pyramids. Nature, 408(6810), 320–324. https://doi.org/10.1038/35042510

Sutherland, I. E. (n.d.). The Ultimate Display.

Verbunt, F., & Van Gent, R. H. (2012). The star catalogues of Ptolemaios and Ulugh Beg: Machine-readable versions and comparison with the modern Hipparcos Catalogue⋆. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 544, A31. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201219596

Włodarczyk, J. (1987). Observing with the Armillary Astrolabe. Journal for the History of Astronomy, 18(3), 173–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/002182868701800303

Woody, K. M. (1977). Dante and the Doctrine of the Great Conjunctions. Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, 95, 119–134. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40166243

Wright, E. (2007). Visualization of the Almagest Star Catalogue. Journal for the History of Astronomy, 38(2), 222–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/002182860703800206