The Life of Johannes Kepler Essay - 1952 Words

The Life of Johannes Kepler HIS LIFE 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†¦show more content†¦Each interior angle of an equilateral triangle is 60 °, therefore we could fit together three, four, or five of them at a vertex, and these correspond to the tetrahedron, the octahedron, and the icosahedron. Each interior angle of a square is 90 °, so we can f it only three of them together at each vertex, giving us a cube. The interior angles of the regular pentagon are 108 °, so again we can fit only three together at a vertex, giving us the dodecahedron. That makes five regular polyhedra. However, what would happen if we had a six-sided figure? Well, its interior angles are 120 °, so if we fit three of them together at a vertex the angles add up to 360 °, and therefore they lie flat. For this reason we cannot use hexagons to make a Platonic solid. In addition, obviously, no polygon with more than six sides can be used either, because the interior angles just keep getting larger. The Greeks, who had to find religious truth in mathematics, found the idea of exactly five Platonic solids very compelling. The philosopher Plato concluded that they must be the fundamental building blocks of nature, and assigned to them what he believed to be the essential elements of the universe. He followed the earlier philosopher Empedocles in assigning fire to the tetrahedron, earth to the cube, air to the octahedron, and water to the icosahedron. To the dodecahedron, Plato assigned theShow MoreRelatedEssay on Johannes Kepler1478 Words   |  6 PagesJohannes 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 (â€Å"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 lineRead MoreJohannes Kepler: Planetary Motion Essay1058 Words   |  5 PagesJohannes Kepler: Planetary Motion When one first thinks to astronomy, the first thing to come to mind might be the stars of the planets. It is always a fascinating thing to learn about the stars, but one should always start from somewhere when learning. One person’s research that is always going to be remembered is that of Johannes Kepler. He is not only the founder of contemporary astronomy but also an amazing mathematician. He was the first person to enlighten us on the theory of planetaryRead MoreJohannes Kepler Essay991 Words   |  4 PagesJohannes Kepler Johannes Kepler is now remembered for discovering the three laws of planetary motion, and writing about them in books that were published in 1609 and 1619. He also did important work in optics, discovered two new regular polyhedra, gave the first mathematical treatment of close packing of equal spheres, gave the first proof of how logarithms worked, and devised a method of finding the volumes of solids of revolution. This can be seen as contributingRead MoreEssay on The Scientific Revolution1263 Words   |  6 Pagesbased strictly around faith and not scientific reasoning. The founders of the revolution took a leap of faith into an unknown realm of science and experimentation. Four of the many brilliant founders of the Scientific Revolution; Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Brahe, used previous scientific principles and their own genius to make advances in science that are still being used today. Scientific pamphlets, the telescope, observations of the universe and the creation of la ws for planetary motion are someRead MoreSimilarities Between Kepler And Kepler s Platonist Geometric Cosmology1462 Words   |  6 Pagesuniverse was comprised of many nested celestial spheres, or orbs. According to M.S. Mahoney, an astronomical researcher at Princeton University, Johannes Kepler, in his physics research, regarded â€Å"the spheres† as the â€Å"geometrical spatial regions containing each planetary orbit rather than physical bodies as in preceding Aristotelian celestial physics†. Kepler provided mathematical evidence to this theory, including the fact that the â€Å"eccentricity of each planet’s elliptical orbit and its major and minorRead MoreThe Genius Of Sir Isaac Newton1687 Words   |  7 Pagesobjects†. This law indicates that all objects in the universe are constantly pulling against each other. This law began to work wonders in not only his own laws and discoveries, but also in the finding of Johannes Kepler and his laws of plane tary motion. This law of gravity coincides perfectly with Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. His first law state that â€Å"The orbit of a planet about the Sun is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus†. This means that all planets orbit in ellipses around one ofRead MoreJohannes Kepler s A Perfect World985 Words   |  4 PagesJohannes Kepler was a modern individual and he believed that God would have created a perfect world and in that world everything was geometrically perfect. In Banville’s book about Kepler it says, â€Å"The search for knowledge everywhere encounters geometrical relations in nature, which God, in creating the world, laid out (Banville 1981, p.145).† As he pursued the answer to planetary motion, he assumed that the planets orbited the sun in a perfect circle. He tried to seek order in his chaotic life throughRead MoreThe Progression to Proving a Heliocentric System615 Words   |  2 Pagesheavens of special power, belonged to the minority group of Renaissance astronomers who did not caste horoscopes† (pg. 94). The Copernican system initially began as a system of minorities, however, as time continued it began to see prominence. Both Johannes Keppler and Galilei Galileo, through their observations and theories began to prove a heliocentric system. Through the utilization of his telescope, Galileo helped prove Copernicus’ heliocentricism. Using his telescope Galileo saw four moons aroundRead MoreWhat Is Science and Where Did It Come From?928 Words   |  4 PagesCopernicus worked on a heliocentric model- where the Earth is simply one of several planets, which orbit the sun. The next man we come to be Johannes Kepler, who contributes the three laws of planetary motion. Kepler studied the orbits of the planets and sought to discern some grand scheme that defined the structure of the universe according to simple geometry. Kepler also put together three laws of planetary motion: first, the planets rotate in elliptical orbits with the sun at one of the centers. TheRead MorePolitical Impacts Of The French Revolution1286 Words   |  6 Pagesstationary, but revolves on its own axis and around the Sun. Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler who are considered the greatest astronomers, also tried to explain the discrepancies in the leading church theories through their own observations and calculations. Tycho suggested that the planets orbit the sun and the whole planetary system orbits the Earth. After Tycho’s death, his assistant, young mathematician Johannes Kepler used Tycho’s observations and came up with his First Law that orbits of the