Who predictidthe solar eclpise in585bc?
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This is from Wikipedia, pretty interesting, actually:
Herodotus wrote that Thales of Miletus predicted an eclipse which occurred during a war between the Medians and the Lydians. Soldiers on both sides put down their weapons and declared peace as a result of the eclipse. Exactly which eclipse was involved has remained uncertain, although the issue has been studied by hundreds of ancient and modern authorities. One likely candidate took place on May 28, 585 BC, probably near the Halys river in the middle of modern Turkey.
my dad said he did but i don't beleive him
First you have to consider which civilizations were advanced enough at the time to have the math and observations. This would probably exclude the nomadic tribes as most astronomy observations require a fixed point of reference.
Since I grew up the the American school system, I was taught basically western European history. My knowledge of the oriental history of the time is rather sketchy, so keep that in mind.
In the classical world, I would assume the Romans, the Egyptians, and the Greeks would meet the civilization/math criteria. Nothing against the Goths, Vandals, and Celtics, but I assume none of them had the infrastructure. (Have to wonder about the people of Stonehenge though)
In the new world, the Mayans are supposed to have an amazing amount of astronomical knowledge followed by the Incas, although I'm not sure of the time period.
(Your question uses the word "predicted". This to me implies the event would be in the future, so I'm trying to think of civilizations that existed prior to 585BC. How do you treat a culture/civilization that developed the math in say 1500AD that said there should have been an eclipse in 585BC?)
In the orient, it would have been China and Japan.
Don't know enough about the rest of the cultures/civilizations of the era, but I would develop the criteria of what a civilization needs to be able to predict an eclipse, and then come up with a list of contemporay ones that meet the criteria.
Hope this helps. :-)
You did. Don't you remember?
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