: What problem in Geocentrism does Heliocentrism solve ?

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Hello, was Heliocentrism adopted because it’s more “logical” or because it solves a problem?

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It was adopted because it was adhered more closely to observed reality. It was later replaced by Newtonian mechanics, again because it better matched actual observations. That, in turn, was replaced by General Relativity, once again because it was more true to observations than its predecessor. And whenever someone correctly elucidates quantum gravity, that will replace general relativity.

Physical theories are not adopted because of utilitarian reasons. They are adopted because experiments reveal that the theory is closer to reality than whatever it supplants. There are often many useful things that come about *because* of the new discovery, but the useful things are not the reason for the replacement – they are a consequence of it.

There were a few problems with geocentrism, though they were not major problems for common people. Primarily, the problem was that the planets – which at the time were simply thought of as wandering stars – would appear to dim and brighten randomly, and at times appear to move backwards through the sky. Accurately predicting their movement was an exercise in progressively more complex math. Heliocentrism reduced that all to a single, relatively simple equation.

And while heliocentrism itself doesn’t change much, the continued refinement of theory, observation and re-formulated theory has led to the entirety of the modern scientific revolution.

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