Callippus

This article is about the astronomer and mathematician. For other uses, see Calippus.

Callippus (/kəˈlɪp.əs/; Ancient Greek: Κάλλιππος; c. 370 BC – c. 300 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician.

Biography

Callippus was born at Cyzicus, and studied under Eudoxus of Cnidus at the Academy of Plato. He also worked with Aristotle at the Lyceum, which means that he was active in Athens prior to Aristotle's death in 322. He observed the movements of the planets and attempted to use Eudoxus' scheme of connected spheres to account for their movements. However he found that 27 spheres was insufficient to account for the planetary movements, and so he added seven more for a total of 34. According to the description in Aristotle's Metaphysics (XII.8), he added two spheres for the Sun, two for the Moon, and one each for Mercury, Venus, and Mars.

Callippus made careful measurements of the lengths of the seasons, finding them (starting with the spring equinox) to be 94 days, 92 days, 89 days, and 90 days. This variation in the seasons implies a variation in the speed of the Sun, called the solar anomaly. He also followed up on the work done by Meton of Athens to measure the length of the year and construct an accurate lunisolar calendar. The Metonic cycle has 19 tropical years and 235 synodic months in 6940 days. The Callippic cycle synchronizes days per orbit and rotations per orbit within the Metonic cycle, noting the difference of one after 4 Metonic cycles, a duration of 76 years. Distinguishing rotations and days infers knowledge of the precession cycle.

Callippus started his observation cycle on the summer solstice, 330 BC, (28 June in the proleptic Julian calendar). The cycle's begin position, the stellar position and sidereal hour timing the eclipse, are used by later astronomers for calibrating their observations in relation to subsequent eclipses. The Callippic cycle of 76 years appears to be used in the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient astronomical mechanical clock and observational aide of the 2nd century BC (discovered in Mediterranean waters off Greece). The Mechanism has a dial for the Callippic cycle and the 76 years are mentioned in the Greek text of the manual of this old device. The crater Calippus on the Moon is named after him.

References

Kieffer, John S. "Callippus." Dictionary of Scientific Biography 3:21-22.

External links

Ancient Greek astronomy

Astronomers	Acoreus Aglaonice Agrippa Anaximander Andronicus Apollonius Aratus Aristarchus Aristyllus Attalus Autolycus Bion Callippus Cleomedes Cleostratus Conon Eratosthenes Euctemon Eudoxus Geminus Heraclides Hicetas Hipparchus Hippocrates of Chios Hypsicles Menelaus Meton Oenopides Philip of Opus Philolaus Posidonius Ptolemy Pytheas Seleucus Sosigenes of Alexandria Sosigenes the Peripatetic Strabo Thales Theodosius Theon of Alexandria Theon of Smyrna Timocharis

Works	Almagest (Ptolemy) On Sizes and Distances (Hipparchus) On the Sizes and Distances (Aristarchus) On the Heavens (Aristotle)

Instruments	Antikythera mechanism Armillary sphere Astrolabe Dioptra Equatorial ring Gnomon Mural instrument Triquetrum

Concepts	Callippic cycle Celestial spheres Circle of latitude Counter-Earth Deferent and epicycle Equant Geocentrism Heliocentrism Hipparchic cycle Metonic cycle Octaeteris Solstice Spherical Earth Sublunary sphere Zodiac

Influences	Babylonian astronomy Egyptian astronomy

Influenced	Medieval European science Indian astronomy Medieval Islamic astronomy

Ancient Greek mathematics

Mathematicians	Anaxagoras Anthemius Archytas Aristaeus the Elder Aristarchus Apollonius Archimedes Autolycus Bion Bryson Callippus Carpus Chrysippus Cleomedes Conon Ctesibius Democritus Dicaearchus Diocles Diophantus Dinostratus Dionysodorus Domninus Eratosthenes Eudemus Euclid Eudoxus Eutocius Geminus Heron Hipparchus Hippasus Hippias Hippocrates Hypatia Hypsicles Isidore of Miletus Leon Marinus Menaechmus Menelaus Metrodorus Nicomachus Nicomedes Nicoteles Oenopides Pappus Perseus Philolaus Philon Porphyry Posidonius Proclus Ptolemy Pythagoras Serenus Simplicius Sosigenes Sporus Thales Theaetetus Theano Theodorus Theodosius Theon of Alexandria Theon of Smyrna Thymaridas Xenocrates Zeno of Elea Zeno of Sidon Zenodorus

Treatises	Almagest Archimedes Palimpsest Arithmetica Conics (Apollonius) Elements (Euclid) On the Sizes and Distances (Aristarchus) On Sizes and Distances (Hipparchus) On the Moving Sphere (Autolycus) The Sand Reckoner

Problems	Problem of Apollonius Squaring the circle Doubling the cube Angle trisection

Centers	Cyrene Library of Alexandria Platonic Academy

Timeline of Ancient Greek mathematicians

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 27871339 GND: 118974084

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