Patricius’ Phenomenological Theory of Tides and its Modern Relativistic Interpretation

this paper brings, for the first time, an interesting modern description of the patricius’ phenomenological theory of tides and its modern relativistic understanding. Famous historians of science (for ex. M. Jammer, Concepts of Force, Dover, 1999; First edition published in 1957 by Harvard press) are emphasizing patricius’ treatise on tides, which had been of primary importance for Kepler in his attempts at formulating the universal character of attraction. patricius had tried to explain the variety of phenomena of tides in various seas as part of his model of the universe (28th and 29th Books of patricius’ Pancosmia). He correctly recognized the Moon and the Sun as two general causes of tides (formulated by Kepler as the lunar theory of tides), but failed to see the role of gravity. patricius rather ascribed tides, within the framework of his general philosophy, to be caused by light and heat (lux et calor). Science (physics) after patricius explained tides as an effect of gravity (Newton), and later in the 20th century as an effect of spacetime curvature (Einstein). the mathematical description of tides within Newton’s theory of gravitation was shown in the paper, along with a more refined calculation of the same phenomenon in curved spacetime within the general relativity theory for the case of weak gravitational fields (Newtonian limit). the general relativistic correction found to be very small compared to the classical Newtonian expression, as one should expect when dealing with weak gravitational fields. Both theories – Newton’s and Einstein’s – despite their precision and beauty in describing tides, do not, however, describe tides in such detail as patricius’ theory which includes the local features of the phenomenon. At various symposia all over the world dedicated to his miraculous year of 1905 (for ex. 22nd Congress of History of Science, July 24 – 30, 2005, Beijing), Einstein has been recognized as the greatest physicists of the 20th century, and with Newton the two greatest physicists of all times. In the paper patricius is understood as a direct predecessor of Kepler in the theory of tides, a hundred years before Newton.