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WonderAstronomy education biography

Wang Zhenyi, an 18th-century Chinese scholar, explained lunar eclipses with a round table as the Earth, a hanging crystal lamp as the Sun and a round mirror as the Moon. Moving them showed how the three line up.

Wang Zhenyi (astronomer)

SpaceScienceBiography

The story behind the card

Wang lived from 1768 to 1797 in Qing-dynasty China, where women were rarely allowed to study astronomy. She learned from her grandfather's large library and from her family, and taught herself most of her mathematics and astronomy. She argued that the Earth is round, against the old idea of a flat Earth under a round sky, wrote on the slow shift of the equinoxes, and rewrote the mathematician Mei Wending's difficult Principles of Calculation in simpler language for beginners. Only about ten of her scientific papers survive, partly because much of her work was destroyed during her final illness; she died at 29. She also left 13 volumes of poetry and prose, and wrote that women and men have the same reason to study. A crater on Venus is named after her.

Türkçe oku
18. yüzyılda yaşamış Çinli bilgin Wang Zhenyi, Ay tutulmalarını yuvarlak bir masa (Dünya), tavana asılı kristal bir lamba (Güneş) ve yuvarlak bir aynayla (Ay) anlattı. Bunları yerinden oynatarak üçünün nasıl aynı hizaya geldiğini gösterdi.

Wang, 1768'den 1797'ye kadar Çing Hanedanı döneminde yaşadı; o dönem Çin'inde kadınların astronomi çalışmasına pek izin verilmezdi. Dedesinin geniş kütüphanesinden ve ailesinden öğrendi; matematik ile astronominin büyük bölümünü kendi kendine çalıştı. Göğün yuvarlak, yerin düz olduğunu söyleyen eski görüşe karşı Dünya'nın yuvarlak olduğunu savundu, ekinoks noktalarının zamanla yavaşça kaymasını anlattı ve matematikçi Mei Wending'in zor anlaşılan Hesap İlkeleri kitabını yeni başlayanlar için daha sade bir dille yeniden yazdı. Bilimsel yazılarından yalnızca on kadarı günümüze ulaştı; son hastalığı sırasında yapıtlarının büyük bölümü yok edilmişti. 29 yaşında öldü. Geride 13 ciltlik şiir ve düzyazı bıraktı; kadınların da erkekler kadar okumak için sebebi olduğunu yazdı. Venüs'teki bir kratere onun adı verildi.

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Background reading: Wang Zhenyi (astronomer)
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