Early life
Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 (Bellis, March 5, 2014). He was a very sickly child and his parents were very poor. At a young age Johannes suffered from smallpox, crippled hands, and eyesight permanently weakened (famousscientist.org). There was no information found on the severity of his eyesight. His illnesses and eyesight deficiency does propose a question of what if he was living today with our new and advanced technology with eyeglasses, medication, and surgery. What more, he also suffered from the lost his father at the age of four and his mother being accused of witchcraft. He was able to attend school even with these circumstances. He was from the Protestant state of Vertenburg , southern Germany, which provided three years of free education (Johannes Kepler's law of Planetary Motion). It was then found out by his professors that he was a bright student. He was sent to Tuebingen on scholarships where he studied philosophy under Vitus Muller and theology with Jacob Heerbrand (Famous Scientist).
German astronomer Johannes Kepler used mathematics to calculate the path of the planets, finding that they traveled not in circles, as long expected, but in ellipses. In 1596, Kepler wrote his first public statement on his reasons that the Copernican system is correct. This was a dangerous stance, given that in 1539, Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran church, derided the theory when he first heard it (Famous Scientist).
Kepler would have not been as successful without Brahe’s data. There is a rumor that Kepler poisoned Brahe in order to get his data, however, this theory is not proven. While Copernicus and Galileo often receive the credit in the popular imagination, it was J...
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Johannes Kepler's law of Planetary Motion - Greatest moments in Science. (n.d.). YouTube. Retrieved May 19, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p3Np6eivZ8
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In conclusion, Jack Repcheck has really succeeded in his major purposes of writing this book. He has given a precise and in-depth human explanation of the events that led to the scientific revolution. He has explained thoroughly the political, human, and cultural factors that eventually paved the way for the revolution. The author has brought this scientific genius to life in a manner that has never been achieved in the past. He has revealed some of the little known weak character traits of Copernicus at the time of his major theories. Copernicus’s secret mistress and other scandals, together with his earlier intention to hide his work, are some of the little known facts about him that the author reveals in the book.
Kuhn, T. S., 1957. The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought. Londen: Harvard University Press.
Copernicus was a Polish astronomer born in 1473, in Thorn, Poland and died in 1543. He entered the University of Krakow in 1491 and studied there for four years. In 1496 he joined the University of Bologna in Italy to study church law and studied astronomy on his own time. He was asked to make a new calendar using the geocentric theory, the theory that the sun and moon orbit the earth. He found several flaws with this system and was bothered by it and went on to discover that the planets actually orbit the sun. Galileo supported Copernicus’ theory when he made discoveries with the telescope. We consider Copernicus to be the founder of modern Astronomy.
Over the next 50 years Copernicus’s book would slowly make its way across Europe. In 1566 a second edition was published without the false preface. The church denounced the book and Copernicus for “going against the bible”, but eventually began to accept it and allow it to be taught. Copernicus’s work was profound and changed the direction of Astronomy. It dared to challenge the notion that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that heavenly matter was unchanging and perfect. Over the next several hundred years Brahe would observe, Kepler and Newton would pour over the numbers and they would find the Copernicus’s model had underlying truths, some flaws, but with tweaking and vigilant observations of the celestial motions it would be the basis that lead them to the model we know today. Bringing forth what we know as the Copernican Revolution.
Galilei, Galileo, and Stillman Drake. Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo: Including the Starry Messenger (1610), Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615), and Excerpts from Letters on Sunspots (1613), the Assayer (1623). New York: Anchor, 1990. Web
...of mechanics. By that time he was an old man, and was blind. He died in 1642, the same year Isaac Newton was born.
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician ho discovered that planetary motion is elliptical. Early in his life, Kepler wanted to prove that the universe obeyed Platonistic mathematical relationships, such as the planetary orbits were circular and at distances from the sun proportional to the Platonic solids (see paragraph below). However, when his friend the astronomer Tycho Brahe died, he gave Kepler his immense collection of astronomical observations. After years of studying these observations, Kepler realized that his previous thought about planetary motion were wrong, and he came up with his three laws of planetary motion. Unfortunately, he did not have a unifying theory for these laws. This had to until Newton formulated his laws of gravity and motion.
The day Galileo had slipped from our world Sir Isaac Newton had life breathed into him. Sir Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642, at Woolsthorpe. Before he was born his father died, so he was brought up with the scent and presence of his mother, Hannah. Despite this at the age of three his mother married someone else and abandoned him in the care of his grandmother, devastating him and rocking his foundation. He received the basic local education, or elementary, until he was twelve, then he proceeded to attend the King's School in Grantham. In 1661, at the age of nineteen, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge and worked to obtain his Bachelors degree. He then decided to go work for his masters degree, the plague hit Europe in 1666 the University closed. The next eighteen months he spent learning in solitude at his manor. When the College reopens he quickly obtains his Masters. He later becomes a professor for this college for 27 years. During these times he brought to light optics, his discovery of calculus and gravitation. Having learned all this he contributed to the Enlightenment with his discoveries as well as influencing thinkers of the future.
The team of Tycho Brahe and John Keppler were the next to study Copernicus’ theory. Brahe tried to disprove Copernicus’ theory and tried to prove the idea of the earth-centered universe. Although Keppler was Brahe’s assistant, he argued for Copernicus and analyzed Brahe’s data to conclude that the sun was the center of the universe. Keppler also used Brahe’s data to discover the movement of the planet Mars. This was the key to explaining all planetary motion. ii He also discovered the planets move in elliptical orbits, which also went against the beliefs of the church. Kepp...
Kepler strongly believed that God created the solar system like a puzzle. If he could somehow unlock the mathematics behind the solar system than everything else would come into place as well. Of course we know t...
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician who lived between 1671-1630. Kepler was a Copernican and initially believed that planets should follow perfectly circular orbits (“Johan Kepler” 1). During this time period, Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the solar system was accepted. Ptolemy’s theory stated that Earth is at the center of the universe and stationary; closest to Earth is the Moon, and beyond it, expanding towards the outside, are Mercury, Venus, and the Sun in a straight line, followed by Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the “fixed stars”. The Ptolemaic system explained the numerous observed motions of the planets as having small spherical orbits called epicycles (“Astronomy” 2). Kepler is best known for introducing three effectual, applicable and valid laws of planetary motion by using the precise data he had developed from Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer, which helped Copernicus’s theory of the solar system gain universal reception (“Johan Kepler” 1). Nevertheless, he had made further effective contributions in the field of astronomy, which are valid to society and were used to change how the universe was perceived.
Shea, W. J. (1970) Galileo’s claim to fame: the proof that the earth moves from the evidence of the tides, The
Later after Copernicus came Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, who confirmed some of Copernicus’ observations. Kepler provided concise evidence of planetary motion regarding their path around the s...
Have you ever wondered who discovered that the sun is the center of our universe? If so, the answer is Nicolai Copernicus. This man was a well-respected as well as well educated man. He explored many different subjects including mathematics, medicine, canon law, and his favorite astronomy. The Earth-centered universe of Aristotle and Ptolemy were Western thinking for almost 2000 years until the 16th century when Copernicus proposed his theory.
Much to the dismay of the Church, two astronomers Galileo and Kepler had the audacity to challenge the authorities by suggesting that the sun-not the earth-was at the center of the universe. The church had a stronghold on the way the spiritual and physical world worked, so these discoveries only added to the Church’s resistance to their aims. Their discoveries came only after Kepler and Galileo began to question ancient theories about how the world functioned. These ancient truths were widely held but were inconsistent with the new observations that they had made. Kepler had discovered the laws of planetary motion which suggested that the planet would move in elliptical orbits, while Galileo followed with his discovery of the principle of inertia. Galileo concluded his finding b...