Geometrical and Statistical Methods of Analysis of Star Configurations Dating Ptolemy's Almagest

by A.T. Fomenko

This easy-to-follow book offers a statistico-geometrical approach for dating ancient star catalogs. The authors' scientific methods reveal statistical properties of ancient catalogs and overcome the difficulties of their dating originated by the low accuracy of these catalogs. Methods are tested on reliably dated medieval star catalogs and applied to the star catalog of the Almagest. Here, the dating of Ptolemy's famous star catalog is reconsidered and recalculated using modern mathematical techniques.The text provides necessary information from astronomy and astrometry. It also covers the history of observational equipment and methods for measuring coordinates of stars. Many chapters are devoted to the Almagest, from a preliminary analysis to a global statistical processing of the catalog and its basic parts. Mathematics are simplified in this book for easy reading. This book will prove invaluable for mathematicians, astronomers, astrophysicists, specialists in natural sciences, historians interested in mathematical and statistical methods, and second-year mathematics

388 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 16, 1993

About the author

Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko is a full Member (Academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Full Member of the International Higher Education Academy of Sciences,Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Professor, Head of the Moscow State University Section of Mathematics of the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics.Solved Plateau's Problem from the theory of minimal spectral surfaces. Author of the theory of invariants and topological classification of integrable Hamiltonian dynamic systems.

Author of 200 scientific publications, 28 monographs and textbooks on mathematics, a specialist in geometry and topology, calculus of variations, symplectic topology, Hamiltonian geometry and mechanics, computer geometry.

Author of a number of books on the development of new empirico-statistical methods and their application to the analysis of historical chronicles as well as the chornology of antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Many Russian scientists do not accept the "New Chronology" declaring it pseudoscientific, yet no mathematical calculations on which the New Chronology is based have been proved wrong. The supporters of the New Chronology include Garry Kasparov, a former chess champion, whom many consider the greatest chess player of all time.