Julio Garavito Armero
Encyclopedia
Julio Garavito Armero was a Colombia
n astronomer
.
Born in Bogotá
, he was a child prodigy
in 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 editing the publication.
In his youth he studied at San Bartolomé high school, but in 1885 he had to interrupt his studies temporarily because of the civil war
s which were affecting his home country. During the Thousand Days War
, Garavito was part of a secret scientific society called El Círculo de los Nueve Puntos (the nine-point circle
), where the condition for admission was to solve a problem about Euler's theorem. This group was active until Garavito's death. As an astronomer of the observatory, he did many useful scientific investigations such as calculating the latitude
of Bogotá, studies about the comet
s which passed by the Earth
between 1901 and 1910 (such as Comet Halley
), and the 1916 solar eclipse
(seen in the majority of Colombia).
But perhaps the most important were his studies about celestial mechanics
, which finally turned into studies about lunar fluctuations and their influence on weather
, flood
s, polar ice, and the Earth's orbital acceleration (this was corroborated later). He worked also in other areas such as optics
(this work was left unfinished at his death), and economics
, by which he helped the country recover from the rough civil war. With this objective, he gave lectures and conferences in economics and the human factors which affected it, such as war or overpopulation
.
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 on classical physics
. 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
He has been compared to two great scientists of the 19th century: José Celestino Mutis
and Francisco José de Caldas
.
One of the most prestigious universities in Colombia is named after him: Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería
- http://www.escuelaing.edu.co (Colombian School of Engineering "Julio Garavito"), created in 1972, with a special emphasis in Applied Sciences and Engineering.
on the Moon
's far side is named Garavito
after him.
His face appears on the 20,000 colombian peso
bill
.
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n astronomer
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
.
Born in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, he was a child prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
in science and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
. He obtained his degrees as mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
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 editing the publication.
In his youth he studied at San Bartolomé high school, but in 1885 he had to interrupt his studies temporarily because of the civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
s which were affecting his home country. During the Thousand Days War
History of Colombia
This article deals with the history of Colombia, a country in South America.-Pre-Colombian period:Approximately 10,000 years BC hunter-gatherer societies existed near present-day Bogotá , and they traded with one another and with cultures living in the Magdalena River valley...
, Garavito was part of a secret scientific society called El Círculo de los Nueve Puntos (the nine-point circle
Nine-point circle
In geometry, the nine-point circle is a circle that can be constructed for any given triangle. It is so named because it passes through nine significant points defined from the triangle...
), where the condition for admission was to solve a problem about Euler's theorem. This group was active until Garavito's death. As an astronomer of the observatory, he did many useful scientific investigations such as calculating the latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
of Bogotá, studies about the comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
s which passed by the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
between 1901 and 1910 (such as Comet Halley
Comet Halley
Halley's Comet or Comet Halley is the best-known of the short-period comets, and is visible from Earth every 75 to 76 years. Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime...
), and the 1916 solar eclipse
Solar eclipse
As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...
(seen in the majority of Colombia).
But perhaps the most important were his studies about celestial mechanics
Celestial mechanics
Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of celestial objects. The field applies principles of physics, historically classical mechanics, to astronomical objects such as stars and planets to produce ephemeris data. Orbital mechanics is a subfield which focuses on...
, which finally turned into studies about lunar fluctuations and their influence on weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
, flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
s, polar ice, and the Earth's orbital acceleration (this was corroborated later). He worked also in other areas such as optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
(this work was left unfinished at his death), and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, by which he helped the country recover from the rough civil war. With this objective, he gave lectures and conferences in economics and the human factors which affected it, such as war or overpopulation
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...
.
He was later the director of the Chorographic Commission, created with the objectives of developing the Colombian railways
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
and defining the frontier with Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. He opposed Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
's theory of relativity
Theory of relativity
The theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
- probably he was opposing vague and contradictory opinions on this theory and its influence on classical physics
Classical physics
What "classical physics" refers to depends on the context. When discussing special relativity, it refers to the Newtonian physics which preceded relativity, i.e. the branches of physics based on principles developed before the rise of relativity and quantum mechanics...
. Despite this, Garavito was very conservative with his scientific knowledge, and 50 years later, the International Astronomical Union
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
named a lunar crater after him, the Garavito crater
Garavito (crater)
Garavito is a lunar crater that is located in the southern hemisphere on the Moon's far side. It lies to the north-northwest of the huge walled plain Poincaré, and to the west of the crater Chrétien. It takes its name in honor of the Colombian astronomer Julio Garavito Armero.This crater has a worn...
. See his name in NASA's page: http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/science/atlas/text/cratertex_g.html
He has been compared to two great scientists of the 19th century: José Celestino Mutis
José Celestino Mutis
-External links:*** at The Catholic Encyclopedia official site...
and Francisco José de Caldas
Francisco José de Caldas
Francisco José de Caldas was a Colombian lawyer, naturalist, and geographer who died a martyr by orders of Pablo Morillo during the Reconquista for being a precursor of the Independence of New Granada ....
.
One of the most prestigious universities in Colombia is named after him: Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería
Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería
The Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería Julio Garavito is a private engineering-based university. The school is located on a campus in a beautiful natural environment in the north part of Bogotá and has approximately 4,600 students in undergraduate and graduate programs...
- http://www.escuelaing.edu.co (Colombian School of Engineering "Julio Garavito"), created in 1972, with a special emphasis in Applied Sciences and Engineering.
Trivia
A craterImpact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
's far side is named Garavito
Garavito (crater)
Garavito is a lunar crater that is located in the southern hemisphere on the Moon's far side. It lies to the north-northwest of the huge walled plain Poincaré, and to the west of the crater Chrétien. It takes its name in honor of the Colombian astronomer Julio Garavito Armero.This crater has a worn...
after him.
His face appears on the 20,000 colombian peso
Colombian peso
The peso is the currency of Colombia. Its ISO 4217 code is COP and it is also informally abbreviated as COL$. However, the official peso symbol is $. As 20 July 2011, the exchange rate of the Colombian peso is 1750 Colombian pesos to 1 U.S. dollar.-History:The peso has been the currency of Colombia...
bill
Banknote
A banknote is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and in many jurisdictions is legal tender. In addition to coins, banknotes make up the cash or bearer forms of all modern fiat money...
.