Includes bibliographical references and index.

The survival of the valid. Peer review ; The scientific method -- Birth. The bowl of night. The two-sphere universe ; Coordinate systems l The sun -- Epicycles and relative motion. A mechanical linkage ; Relative motion -- The deferent-epicycle model. Retrograde motion ; Ptolemy ; The deferent-epicycle model ; Intimations of numerology ; The equant -- Making money, et cetera. Epicyclic curves as decorative patterns ; Cycloidal curves -- Rebirth. The reluctant revolutionary. Adjusting the Ptolemaic theory ; Copernicus ; Galileo -- Circles no more. The ellipse ; Two pearls ; Tracking planets -- The war with Mars. Tycho Brahe ; Kepler -- Enlightenment. The birth of mechanics. Archimedes ; Galileo -- The astronomical alchemist. Newton's dynamics ; Rotational dynamics ; The law of universal gravitation -- The Greek alphabet -- Vectors.

"Benson shows that ancient theories of planetary motion were based on the assumptions that the Earth was the center of the universe and the planets moved in a uniform circular motion. Since ancient astronomers noted that occasionally a planet would exhibit retrograde motion--would seem to reverse its direction and move briefly westward--they concluded that the planets moved in epicyclic curves, circles with smaller interior loops, similar to the patterns of a child's Spirograph. With the coming of the Copernican revolution, the retrograde motion was seen to be apparent rather than real, leading to the idea that the planets moved in ellipses. This laid the ground for Newton's great achievement--integrating the concepts of astronomy and mechanics--which revealed not only how the planets moved, but also why. Throughout, Benson focuses on a science based on naked-eye observation--the science of a simpler time when the planets were mere points of light and five in number--which makes it easy for the modern novice to grasp the work of these pioneers of astronomy."--Jacket.

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