Hipparchus

Also known as Hipparchus of Nicaea, Hipparchus of Rhodes

Hipparchus (; , ;  BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equinoxes. Hipparchus was born in Nicaea, Bithynia, and probably died on the island of Rhodes, Greece. He is known to have been a working astronomer between 162 and 127 BC.

AI overview

Hipparchus was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician who lived between 162 and 127 BC and is credited with founding trigonometry. He is best remembered for discovering the precession of the equinoxes, a finding that fundamentally changed our understanding of how Earth's orientation changes over time.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: fl. 190 B.C.
Died: 127 B.C.
Works: 8

Top works

Hipparchou Tōn Aratou kai Eudoxou Phainomenōn exēgēseōs vivlia tria =
['Ipparchou Ton 'Aratou kai Eu'doxou phainoménon 'exegéseos biblia tria
Hipparchi bithyni in arati et eudoxi phaenomena libri III..
Hipparkhou Bithunou ton Aratou kai Eudoxou Phainomenon exegeseon biblia g
The geographical fragments of Hipparchus

via Open Library + Wikidata

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 1
Total plays: 19

via Last.fm · Hipparchus

Recent publications · Crossref

3 total works indexed

ASTRONOMY AND LETTERS.
· 1926
The Geographical Fragments of Hipparchus. With an Introduction and Commentary
· 1960
Subbatical and Jubilee Years of the jews
· 1851

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“I have composed a book on the length of the year in which I show that the tropical year contains 365 days plus a fraction of a day which is not exactly 1/4 days as the mathematicians-astronomers suppose, but which is less than 1/4 by about 1/300.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Person.name: Hipparchus
Person.image: Head of Hipparchus (cropped).jpg
Person.caption: Illustration based on a 19th century engraved amethyst from the Poniatowski gem collection
Person.birth_date:  BC
Person.birth_place: Nicaea, Kingdom of Bithynia(modern-day İznik, Bursa, Turkey)
Person.death_date:  BC (around age 70)
Person.death_place: Rhodes, Roman Republic(modern-day Greece)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: Head of Hipparchus (cropped).jpg

Show 5 more facts

Commons category: Hipparchus
date of birth: 0190-00-00
date of death: 0120-00-00
birth name: Ἵππαρχος
name in native language: Hipparchus

Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~48 min read

Article

28 sections

Contents

Life and work
Babylonian sources
Geometry, trigonometry and other mathematical techniques
Lunar and solar theory
Motion of the Moon
Orbit of the Moon
Apparent motion of the Sun
Orbit of the Sun
Distance, parallax, size of the Moon and the Sun
Eclipses
Astronomical instruments and astrometry
Star catalog
Stellar magnitude
Coordinate system
Celestial globe
Arguments for and against Hipparchus's star catalog in the Almagest
Precession of the equinoxes (146–127 BC)
Geography
Other work
Modern speculation
Legacy
Translations
See also
Notes
References
Works cited
Further reading
External links

Hipparchus is considered the greatest ancient astronomical observer and, by some, the greatest overall astronomer of antiquity. He was the first whose quantitative and accurate models for the motion of the Sun and Moon survive. For this he certainly made use of the observations and perhaps the mathematical techniques accumulated over centuries by the Babylonians and by Meton of Athens (fifth century BC), Timocharis, Aristyllus, Aristarchus of Samos, and Eratosthenes, among others.