Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Man and the Earth in the Universe

What do we think of when we hear the word Earth? Some people think of a globe, a colored ball like the one we put on the table, the oceans are all painted blue, the continents have their own special colors, and each country is a different color from its neighbours. .And some people think of a world map, which depicts the outlines of the continents we are familiar with, laid out in a large rectangular frame. But others feel that the word earth refers to something quite different from what has been said above.It signifies a planet, a member of the solar family, a gigantic ball drifting through space, with a universe of countless stars scattered before it, receding.

People who are parents now are the people of the so-called old life, who only think of globes and maps, thinking that it is the earth.In the minds of the young and young, the earth is a celestial body, an astronomical object, like Venus and Mars.The earth imagined by young people is exactly the earth seen from space, as if they have become travelers in space. The mid-twentieth century was truly a turning point in the history of how humans viewed the planet they inhabited.This history has three phases, the first of which is long.From the beginning of human civilization to the early sixteenth century, human beings generally believed that they lived on a disc-shaped ground.Later, the feat of the first circumnavigation of the world, accomplished by Magellan's expedition in 1522, put an end to the long debate and confirmed beyond all doubt that our home world is the surface of a sphere.From then on, the era of globes and maps on the stage began.Now we have launched the third stage, especially our young people have comprehended the new concept of human beings' residence in the universe, and the new concept of the earth's position in the universe.Young talent is the best proof that we are now in the space age, at a new vantage point on a long and winding road of human endeavor and understanding.

Throughout history, human beings have been clinging to a conceited idea and refused to let go, always thinking that they are at the center of the universe.Throughout the history of science and inquiry, there have been few ideas held by mankind as firmly held in spite of repeated demonstrations of falsehood.The process of human beings retreating from the center of the universe step by step is the process of human knowledge growing and thriving, and the growth of knowledge must be attributed to many great minds of the past.Only in our own generation do we see the last stages of this historical development.

In ancient times, those who believed that the earth was a gigantic disk also believed that their own country was in the center of the disk.The Chinese believed that China had always been central, and the Indians and the Mayans of ancient America held similar beliefs about their country.The delicate Greeks had fixed an exact center for the discoid world: this center was at Delphi, the famous temple of Apollo.Delphi was built on the hills of Mount Parnassus, just a few miles from the Gulf of Collins.The Greeks considered this temple to be extremely sacred, because it had a famous sanctuary, and all kings, politicians, and citizens who wanted to know their fortunes and misfortunes came here to ask.But the hall of Delphi has another great significance: in the center of the grand hall of the main hall, a very smooth marble cone is erected, which is richly decorated. It is said that it is the center of the world.

It is therefore easy to see why the human mind imagines a disk-shaped world.No matter where we are, we always regard ourselves as the center, and regard other places in the world as the periphery, located on the circumference of concentric circles, with ourselves as the center.In the ocean we see the horizon forming a great circle with ourselves in the center.The night sky is a vault, the center of which seems to be right above our heads. Early Greek thinkers described the Earth as a vast circular field surrounded by the Ochenus River.This scene did not violate the geographical knowledge of the people living along the Mediterranean Sea at that time.In the following centuries, Greek philosophers gradually became dissatisfied with this shallow view. They proposed a new idea that the world is round, but this idea was not guided by new geographical discoveries, but from their own. Idealized mathematical thinking.

We do not know who first had the wonderful idea that the earth was not a disk but a sphere.But we do know: the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) believed it.He deduced that the earth must be a sphere, because the sphere has a perfect mathematical shape, and only a perfect shape is suitable to represent the earth and the universe.Aristotle was not content with this argument, though powerful and convincing in the minds of the orderly Greeks; he presented another excellent proof.He pointed out: During a lunar eclipse, the moon moves into the shadow of the earth, and the edge of the shadow is round.Aristotle said that the shadow of the earth cast on the moon is always like a part of a circular disk, but of all geometrical figures, only the sphere casts a circular shadow, no matter where it is cast from.This is a proof that is both simple and extremely ingenious.It is indeed impressive to watch a lunar eclipse and see how our planet takes its true form on the cosmic screen provided by nature.

Since the world admits that the earth is really a sphere, it cannot pretend to be at the center of the world.All positions on the surface of the sphere are mathematically equal; no one position can be said to be different from any other.All nations have at the same time the right to claim to be at the center of the world—in other words, no one has the right to claim to be so. The fact that the earth is spherical did not become common knowledge until long after Aristotle.The idea is not taught in schools; only a few philosophers, astronomers, and mathematicians have ever known about it.During late antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages the idea was almost entirely lost, and it was not until the fifteenth century that it became an exciting conjecture among the intrepid voyagers of Spain and Portugal.

The reasons for this conjecture are quite realistic.Spain and Portugal are practically cut off from the rest of Europe by the steep Pilenz Mountains in between.Muslims ruled the countries of the Middle East and prevented Europeans from doing business with India and searching for treasures there.The Portuguese and Spaniards, being hindered in these respects, sought another way out, probing along the coast of the African continent, and wondering whether it was possible to sail westward around the spherical -- it was hoped then -- land to reach India.Thus the true shape of the earth, which until then had been no more than an interesting mathematical and astronomical conjecture, was of great practical importance.

But even in the time of Columbus, the spherical shape of the earth was denied by many very intelligent people.Columbus pleaded with the Spanish court to support his plan to go to India via the western route, only to be met with this typical argument: what happens when your fleet reaches the edge of the world?Wouldn't these ships slip off the edge and tumble into the void?After many years of arguing, Columbus won the argument and set sail to sea. Columbus believed until his deathbed that he had indeed reached the east coast of India, that he had really crossed the unknown part of the circular earth.Of course, this is not the case.It was the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand who completed a full circle around the earth for the first time.Magellan's expedition.He was born on September 20, 1519, from Sannuca in the province of Seville, Spain.De.Panama went to sea at the port, and the team had five ships.He traveled around the southern tip of America, crossed the vast and desolate Pacific Ocean, and went through untold hardships to reach the Marianna Islands and discovered the Philippine Islands.Magellan died in 1521 after assisting a native chieftain in a war against a neighboring island.One of the remaining ships in his fleet, the Victory, died under Captain Del.Under the command of Captain del Cano, he completed the feat of circumnavigating the world, bypassed Africa, and returned to Seville. That day was September 9, 1522, almost three years from the date of departure.Strangely enough, the calendar on the ship indicated that the date of returning to Hong Kong was September 8th; no one thought about the fact that one day would be lost if one went westward to circle the world!

After the success of Magellan's feat, the true shape of the Earth became generally accepted knowledge.The second phase of man's perception of this planet has begun. At that time, no one could rightly claim to be at the center of the world.Yet the earth itself is still believed to be the center of the universe, and all the stars, sun, moon, and planets revolve around it.This concept is also untenable, and the man who was destined to destroy this concept was already forty-nine years old when the ship Victory returned to the port of Seville after its famous voyage in history. This man is Nicola.Nicolaus Copernicus.In 1543, the year of Copernicus' death, his famous book The Spin, or On the Rotation of the Celestial Bodies, was published.The book assigns the central place of the universe to the sun, which at any rate is entitled to this place, because its brilliance is overwhelming.The earth was relegated to humble status by Copernicus, on the same rank as the planets, orbiting the sun, away from the central vital points it coveted.

The Copernican idea got around, and most learned people, as well as everyone else, refused to believe it at all.Is this great earth, the solid ground under their feet, with its vast oceans and air, moving in the sky?Copernicus, a Polish fool, said that the earth is revolving around its own axis, making one revolution every twenty-four hours, and at the same time it is flying around the sun at an extremely fast speed, more than a hundred times faster than a cannonball ! It would be a century and a half before most educated people accepted this strange notion.Human beings' poor ability to experience is not the only obstacle.The human mind is also loath to acknowledge the demeaning truth that Earth, the home of humanity, is not the center of everything. But Copernicus' revolutionary theory of celestial rotation was just the beginning.Once the earth and human beings were thrown into space by Copernicus, other new ideas came into play.Copernicus' book deals only with the planets and their motions; the innumerable stars in the sky are still seen as points of light attached to a great sphere which encloses the whole universe, with the sun at the centre.For thousands of years, people in the world have always believed that there is such a transparent ball that is loaded with shining stars; don't people from all over the world see this ball every night when the sky is clear and clear?But since Copernicus, the days of the star-studded ball are numbered. Decades after the death of the great Pole, the Italian monk GiordanoBruno (Giordano Bruno) said that this starry ball is actually an illusion.He pointed out to the world that those fixed stars are actually suns as big, as dignified, and as brilliant as our sun.He realized that the entire universe is infinitely larger than the small space occupied by the solar system.He shattered the idea of ​​a sphere with stars, and opened the world's eyes to the vast space, which is so wide, so high, and so deep, that it can accommodate millions of solar systems.He thought: We are so far away from these suns that their incomparable light is reduced to the faint twinkle of stars seen at night. In 1600 AD, Giordano.Bruno accused him of being a heretic and was burned alive at the stake.A long story is told about the circumstances of his trial; he was not only aggravated by his astronomical theories.At least it was because the prim monks who made up the Inquisition were deeply moved by his insights.He saw the earth as a tiny, slight ball floating like a speck of dust through space, and in the minds of those who thought such a view was utter blasphemy.Haven't the earth and mankind been blessed by the coming of the Savior?Earth and humanity must be more important than this mad monk imagines. Even today there are many who cannot adapt the modern scientific view of the universe to their religious beliefs.But in Giordano.Less than two hundred years after Bruno killed himself for science, most scientifically minded thinkers have grown accustomed to Bruno's view that the Earth is nothing more than a speck of dust in the Milky Way.Astronomers describe the universe as a huge wheel-shaped cloud gathered by many stars. When we humans stand in the universe and look to the edge, we can only see the silver-white belt of the Milky Way. British astronomer William.Herschel (William Herschel) surveyed the Milky Way with a large telescope and concluded that the sun and its planets were located near the center of the Milky Way.In this way, although the earth loses some advantages, human beings at least feel that they are still in the center of the known universe.Because there is only one galaxy, which is the galaxy of human beings. Around Herschel's time, a little less than two centuries ago, astronomers had guessed what it was to be in certain shimmering patches of the sky that were far from being resolved or separated into individual stars.Later, as telescopes got bigger and bigger, more and more of these glowing patches called nebulae were discovered.German philosopher Immanuel.Immanuel Kant first speculated that these faint clouds were other star systems, that is, other galaxies, very far away from our own.But few people are willing to accept this concept.Most people think it's ridiculous. During the nineteenth century, the distances between the stars were ascertained with increasing accuracy, and the position of the sun in our galaxy was rechecked in light of this new knowledge.The end result is a further blow to the age-old arrogance of the human being at the center of everything.It was discovered that the sun is closer to the edge of the galaxy than to the center.As more and more knowledge is learned about the sun, the world realizes that it is just a mediocre star, not bigger and not necessarily more important than a million other stars. In 1917, a 100-inch diameter telescope, the largest telescope in the world at that time, began service at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, USA.One of its early targets was faint nebulae.Years of observations have proved beyond a doubt that these mysterious pale patches of glowing matter are in fact galaxies, on an equal footing with our own Milky Way.At first, our galaxy seemed a par excellence colossus; we still seemed to be able to boast about it.But this belief was also shattered after World War II, when Walter of the Palomar Mountain Observatory.Dr. Bard discovered a major error in the accepted cosmic dimensions (or translations).Today we know that our own Milky Way is mediocre; there are billions of galaxies as large as it or even larger. In this way, man and his tiny earth are indeed reduced to insignificance.But human beings still cling to another superior condition and refuse to let go of this superior point, which cannot be limited by the position or volume in the universe.Is it not possible that we humans are the only intelligent species in the universe?This view, not so long ago, seemed quite plausible; the world believed that our solar system was created by an accident in the heavens, an accident so rare and rare that no other source of life but ours could sustain life. The solar system simply cannot have a chance of existence.Only twenty years ago, the British physicist ArthurSir Arthur Eddington, a supreme authority in the scientific community, once said that the living things on our planet must be unique in the universe.He believes that life can exist on the earth, which can be said to be due to negligence, because nature has not been able to keep the universe in a sterile state. In the past ten years, too, the idea of ​​the exclusive glory of man has been shattered, as untenable as all the conceited ideas of the past.Today's scientific community already knows with certainty that many of the billions of suns hidden in thousands of galaxies have a group of planets.Of course, there are also many stars that are not like our sun.Perhaps the vast majority of planets are hostile to life, such as Mercury or Jupiter, which are either too hot or too cold.The vast majority of planets are probably sterile because nature has denied them the physical and chemical conditions by which life could evolve.But even though it's a one in a million chance, there must be thousands, perhaps millions, of other planets in the universe, warmed by a friendly sun, teeming with life.Why shouldn't these living things have a spark of what we call intelligence? Therefore, after more than two thousand years of pursuit and wonder, we have obtained such a teaching: human beings are not located in the center of the universe, nor are they the only species in the universe. However, the grand universe is just one aspect of the universe, which is the magnificent field of billions of stars and the Milky Way.In addition, there is another aspect, which is the microcosm, that is, the domain of molecules, atoms, nuclei, and elementary particles.What is the place of human beings between these two great divisions in nature? The human body, like any other corporeal thing, is made of atoms.It takes an enormous number of atoms to form a human body, because each atom is extremely small.The number of atoms required to build a human body is so great that it cannot be called by ordinary terms such as billions or trillions; this number is a number followed by twenty-eight zeros.Let's call it N.The number N thus has a very interesting possibility.If there is such a mass of things, what is it made up of the bodies of N people? The weight of a lump formed by the sum of the bodies of N people would be about the size of an ordinary star!Therefore, the size of a human body is between that of an atom and that of a star.Just as Eddington first pointed out that the ratio of atoms to man is equal to the ratio of man to stars. The position of man is in the middle, and his ratio to the two ends of size is equal. Atom: Man ∥ Man: Star We now know that atoms are not the smallest things in nature.It is made of much smaller particles such as protons, neutrons and electrons.And ordinary-sized stars are by no means the largest things in nature.The Milky Way, like other galaxies in the universe, is much larger than the stars.We choose atoms and stars as the main eyes because they are the two most fundamental and clearest structures in nature.In a sense, they are the fundamental units of the universe. Discovering that man is somewhere between atoms and stars is not a major scientific discovery, but a clever way of saying it.But it's thought provoking.Since human beings stand between the macrocosm and the microcosm, they are in a very convenient position.It is easy for human beings to detect and even understand the secrets of everything from both big and small aspects.If modern science has shattered man's age-old dream of being unique, of being at the geometric center of everything, it has given man something more valuable in return.What a majestic spectacle our universe is!Although human beings are extremely small, they are surprisingly capable of detecting in all directions, understanding, and imparting knowledge.The search for understanding, for the truth of our place in the universe, is no less wondrous, and in fact far more rewarding, than clinging blindly to the self-centered dreams of yesteryear.Human beings do not become smaller because of knowledge, but they become greater.Man uses his mind and seeks to understand, no matter where he is, he is indeed at the center of everything. A planet drifting through space, a universe of many suns and many planets, a set of natural laws governing everything from the Milky Way down to the atom is the modern view of the world in which man lives.This view has taken the hard way to gain general acceptance, and the older minds of the world still unconsciously imagine the world as a globe on a desk and a map on a wall.The young man knows that the earth is a planet, which has been revolving in orbit since ancient times, and the universe is regressing in front of him.Young people are full of plans to travel in space, to explore the depths of the atom and the distant galaxies one after another, and they are not discouraged.They themselves are, after all, if the people of the previous generation were not in the middle of everything, or should be said to be in the middle.