Problem: Claudius Ptolemy (; Greek: Klaudios Ptolemaios, Klaudios Ptolemaios [klawdios ptoleme:os]; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus; c. AD 100 - c. 170) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Koine Greek, and held Roman citizenship. The 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes gave his birthplace as the prominent Greek city Ptolemais Hermiou

Ptolemy's Almagest is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Babylonian astronomers had developed arithmetical techniques for calculating astronomical phenomena; Greek astronomers such as Hipparchus had produced geometric models for calculating celestial motions. Ptolemy, however, claimed to have derived his geometrical models from selected astronomical observations by his predecessors spanning more than 800 years, though astronomers have for centuries suspected that his models' parameters were adopted independently of observations. Ptolemy presented his astronomical models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The Almagest also contains a star catalogue, which is a version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus. Its list of forty-eight constellations is ancestral to the modern system of constellations, but unlike the modern system they did not cover the whole sky (only the sky Hipparchus could see). Across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in the Medieval period, it was the authoritative text on astronomy, with its author becoming an almost mythical figure, called Ptolemy, King of Alexandria. The Almagest was preserved, like most of extant Classical Greek science, in Arabic manuscripts (hence its familiar name). Because of its reputation, it was widely sought and was translated twice into Latin in the 12th century, once in Sicily and again in Spain. Ptolemy's model, like those of his predecessors, was geocentric and was almost universally accepted until the appearance of simpler heliocentric models during the scientific revolution.  His Planetary Hypotheses went beyond the mathematical model of the Almagest to present a physical realization of the universe as a set of nested spheres, in which he used the epicycles of his planetary model to compute the dimensions of the universe. He estimated the Sun was at an average distance of 1,210 Earth radii, while the radius of the sphere of the fixed stars was 20,000 times the radius of the Earth.  Ptolemy presented a useful tool for astronomical calculations in his Handy Tables, which tabulated all the data needed to compute the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets, the rising and setting of the stars, and eclipses of the Sun and Moon. Ptolemy's Handy Tables provided the model for later astronomical tables or zijes. In the Phaseis (Risings of the Fixed Stars), Ptolemy gave a parapegma, a star calendar or almanac, based on the hands and disappearances of stars over the course of the solar year.

what did people think of him?

Answer with quotes: 


Problem: Samuel Luther "Big Sam" Thompson (March 5, 1860 - November 7, 1922) was an American professional baseball player from 1884 to 1898 and with a brief comeback in 1906. At 6 feet, 2 inches, the Indiana native was one of the larger players of his day and was known for his prominent handlebar mustache. He played as a right fielder in Major League Baseball for the Detroit Wolverines (1885-88), Philadelphia Phillies (1889-1898) and Detroit Tigers (1906). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

In 15 major league seasons, Thompson compiled a .331 batting average with 1,988 hits, 343 doubles, 161 triples, 126 home runs, 1,305 RBIs, and 232 stolen bases. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.  Thompson was one of the most prolific run producers in baseball history. His career RBI to games played ratio of .923 (1,305 RBIs in 1,410 games) remains the highest in major league history, higher even than Lou Gehrig (.921), Hank Greenberg (.915), Joe DiMaggio (.885), and Babe Ruth (.884). In 1895, Thompson averaged 1.44 RBIs per game (147 RBIs in 102 games), still a major league record. His 166 RBIs in 1887 (in only 127 games) was 62 more than anyone else in the league that year, and it stood as the major league record until 1921 when Babe Ruth collected 168 (albeit in 152 games). Thompson still holds the major league record for most RBIs in a single month with 61 in August 1894 while playing for the Phillies.  Thompson was also one of the best power hitters of the era before Babe Ruth. At the end of the 19th century, Thompson's 126 career home runs ranked second only to Roger Connor. Defensively, Thompson still ranks among the all-time major league leaders with 61 double plays from the outfield (16th all time) and 283 outfield assists (12th all time). Thompson has also been credited by baseball historians with perfecting "the art of throwing the ball to the plate on one bounce, which catchers found easier to handle than the usual throw on the fly." Bill Watkins, who managed Thompson in Detroit, recalled: "He was a fine fielder and had a cannon arm and will live in my memory as the greatest natural hitter of all time."  In a 1913 story on Thompson, Detroit sports writer Maclean Kennedy noted that Thompson's drives "were the direct cause of more hats being smashed, more backs that were thumped til they were black and blue by some wild-eyed fan sitting in the seat behind, more outbursts of frenzied shrieks and howls of glee, than those of any other player who ever wore a Detroit uniform", barring only the two great stars of the day, Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford.

Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?

Answer with quotes:
At the end of the 19th century, Thompson's 126 career home runs ranked second only to Roger Connor.