- ...Almagest
![[*]](footnote.png)
- The true title
of this work is Syntaxis Mathematica, which means something
like ``Mathematical Treatise''. The name Almagest is probably an
Arabic corruption of the work's later Greek nickname, H Megiste
(Syntaxis), meaning ``The Greatest (Treatise)''.
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- ... inclinations,
![[*]](footnote.png)
- Actually, Ptolemy erroneously allowed the inclinations of the
deferents and epicycles to vary slightly.
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- ... orbits.
![[*]](footnote.png)
- In fact, the planets revolve on small circular epicycles, whose centers revolve around
the sun on eccentric circular deferents.
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- ... earth.
![[*]](footnote.png)
-
The one exception to this rule is the moon, which is sufficiently close to the earth
that its parallax is significant--see Sect. 6.4.
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- ...
plane.
![[*]](footnote.png)
- In fact,
is very slowly decreasing in time. The value of
used in the Almagest is
. However, the true value of
in Ptolemy's day was
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