Julio Garavito Armero

Julio Garavito Armero (January 5, 1865 – March 11, 1920) was a Colombian astronomer.

Related Topics:
January 5 - 1865 - March 11 - 1920 - Colombia - Astronomer

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Born in Bogotá, he was a child prodigy for science and mathematics. He obtained his degrees as mathematician and civil engineer in the Escuela Nacional de Ingeniería (National Engineering School). In 1892 he worked as the director of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (National Astronomical Observatory). His investigative works had been published in Los Anales de Ingeniería (The Annals of Engineering) since 1890, seven years before he took over by editing the publication.

Related Topics:
Bogotá - Child prodigy - Mathematics - Civil engineer - 1892 - 1890

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In his youth he studied in San Bartolomé high school, but in 1885 he had to interrupt his studies temporarily because of the civil wars which were affecting his home country.

Related Topics:
1885 - Civil war

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During the war of thousand days, Garavito was part of a secret scientific society called El Círculo de los Nueve Puntos (the Nine point circle), where the condition to be let in was to solve a problem about Euler's theorem. This group was active until Garavito himself died.

Related Topics:
War of thousand days - Nine point circle - Euler's theorem

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As an astronomer of the observatory, he did many useful researches such as calculating the latitude of Bogotá, studies about the comets which passed by the Earth between 1901 and 1910 (such as Comet Halley), and the 1916 solar eclipse (seen in the majority of Colombia).

Related Topics:
Latitude - Comet - Earth - 1901 - 1910 - Comet Halley - 1916 - Solar eclipse

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But perhaps the most important things were his studies about celestial mechanics, which finally turned into studies about lunar fluctuations and their influence in weather, floods, polar ice, and Earth's orbital acceleration (this was corroborated later).

Related Topics:
Celestial mechanics - Weather - Flood - Polar ice

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He worked also in other areas such as optics - although this part of his works was left unfinished because of his death, and economics, from which he helped the country recover from the rough civil war. With this objective did he give lectures and conferences in economics and the human factors which affected it, such as war or overpopulation.

Related Topics:
Optics - Economics - Overpopulation

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He was later the director of the Chorographic Commission, created with the objectives of developing the Colombian railways and defining the frontier with Venezuela. He opposed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity - probably he was opposing vague and contradictory opinions on this theory and its influence in classical physics.

Related Topics:
Chorographic Commission - Railways - Venezuela - Albert Einstein - Theory of relativity - Classical physics

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Despite this, Garavito was very conservative with his scientific knowledge, and 50 years later, the International Astronomical Union named a lunar crater after him, the Garavito crater. See his name in NASA's page: http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/science/atlas/text/cratertex_g.html

Related Topics:
International Astronomical Union - Garavito

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He has been compared to two great scientists of the 19th century: José Celestino Mutis and Francisco José de Caldas.

Related Topics:
19th century - José Celestino Mutis - Francisco José de Caldas

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