Page 89 - 89 history of astronomy_opt
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containing sphere, and there was no reason
                                         why it should incline one way rather than
                                         another. Empedocles attributed its state
                                         of rest to centrifugal force by the rapid cir-
                                         cular movement of the heavens, as water
                                         is stationary in a pail when whirled round
                                         by a string. Democritus further supposed
                                         that the inclination of the flat earth to the
                                         ecliptic was due to the greater weight of the
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