Investigations of the coordinates in Ptolemy's \textit{Geographike hyphegesis} Book 8

DOI10.1007/S00407-012-0102-0MaRDI QIDQ715166zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Christian Marx

Publication date 2 November 2012

Published in Archive for History of Exact Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.01037

zbMATH Keywords

\textit{Geography}Book 8location catalogueresolution of coordinates

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of Greek and Roman mathematics (01A20) History of astronomy and astrophysics (85-03)

Abstract: In Book 8 of his Geographike Hyphegesis Ptolemy gives coordinates for ca. 360 so-called noteworthy cities. These coordinates are the time difference to Alexandria, the length of the longest day, and partly the ecliptic distance from the summer solstice. The supposable original conversions between the coordinates in Book 8 and the geographical coordinates in the location catalogue of Books 2-7 including the underlying parameters and tabulations are here reconstructed. The results document the differences between the $Omega$- and $Xi$-recension. The known difference in the longitude of Alexandria underlying the conversion of the longitudes is examined more closely. For the ecliptic distances from the summer solstice of the $Omega$-recension it is revealed that they were originally computed by means of a so far undiscovered approximate, linear conversion. Further it is shown that the lengths of the longest day could be based on a linear interpolation of the data in the Mathematike Syntaxis 2.6.

Review text

Ptolemy compiled about 6300 ancient localities and their positions expressed by geographical longitude and latitude in his ``Geography (books 2-7). 360 are listed once more in book 8. Now their positions are expressed by the time difference from the location in Alexandria, the length of the longest day at the location, and the ecliptic distance of the sun from the summer solstice at the time when the sun reaches the zenith. The author investigates the conversions of the coordinates between the location catalogue and book 8. ``The underlying calculation methods and their parameters are worked out as well as the underlying tabulations. Deviations between the coordinates in book 8 and in the location catalogue are explained \dots by the resolution (precision) of the coordinates.

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Cites work

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• A survey of the Almagest. Edited by Alexander Jones, with annotation and a new commentary
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• Tests of Linear Hypotheses and Lav Estimation: A Monte Carlo Comparison
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