Reconstruction and Innovative Design of Su Song’s Armillary Sphere in the Northern Song Dynasty

• Main Authors: Chang chun-wei, 張君瑋
• Other Authors: Lin Tsung-Yi
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 103
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/uw75q6

碩士 === 南台科技大學 === 機械工程系 === 102 === Armillary sphere on Su Song’s Clock Tower in Song Dynasty was the combination of three circles (equinoctial, ecliptic, and tropic of cancer), which could automatically trace the operation of stars, observe the motion trajectory of the astronomical object and record the coordinate, and display the respondent date, solar term, and moment. More artfully, it combined gnomon, which could be used for calibrating the time at noon and presented the mature development of Chinese Armillary sphere. Such two astronomical instruments were the key in the calendar designing process. In addition to the reconstruction of Su Song’s Armillary sphere, an entity model of such an instrument is produced, a new and useful Armillary sphere design is successfully created, and the manufacturing and test of the prototype are completed in this study. Not only does such a new-type Armillary sphere remain the appearance, structure, and function of Su Song’s original Armillary sphere, it (including gnomon) is also suitable for places with distinct latitudes, i.e. any places. It shows the difference from the ancient astronomical instrument, which could merely used at fixed spot, and the valuable innovation. The design characteristics cover (1)adjustable polar design, (2)synchronous latitude design of Arctic Circle and Antarctic Circle, (3)special design of Ao cloud and cross water drop, (4)gnomon shadow template with changeable north-south orientation, and (5)removable shadow template design. The completed new-type Armillary sphere is applied to the curriculum design and instruction so that the knowledge of “Knowing about stars and the sky, day and night, and seasonal changes” in Earth Science is explained and ancient people’s cognition and the construction process of time are included in the instruction, from which the students could constuct the concept of Time in the self-exploring process, effectively enhance the quality of science education, and cultivate the literacy of astronomy. The new-type Armillary sphere therefore could offer high school students with autonomic learning of Time and be the program for developing practical work of canonical and high-quality science education.