Essay on Johannes Kepler - 1478 Words

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 (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 line, followed by Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the â€Å"fixed stars†. The Ptolemaic system explained the numerous observed motions of the planets as having small spherical orbits called epicycles (â€Å"Astronomy† 2). Kepler is best known for introducing three†¦show more content†¦His first law states, â€Å"The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.† As shown in Figure 1, The Sun is not at the focus of the ellipse, but is instead at one focus [usually there is nothing at the other focus of the ellipse]. The planet then trails the ellipse in its orbit, which implies that the Earth-Sun distance is continually changing as the planet goes around its orbit. Kepler’s second law states, â€Å"The line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times as the planet travels around the ellipse.† As shown in Figure 2, an imaginary line from the center of the sun to the center of a planet sweeps out the same area in a given time. This means that planets move faster when they are closer to the sun. Kepler’s third and final law states, â€Å"The time taken by a planet to make one complete trip around the sun is its period. The ratio of the squares of periodic times for two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their mean distances from the sun.† Kepler’s third law indicates that the time taken by a planet to orbit the Sun increase s quickly with the radius of its orbit (Johannes Kepler: The† 1-4). Kepler’s laws challenged Aristotelean and Ptolemaic astronomy. His statement that the EarthShow MoreRelatedJohannes 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 MoreThe Life of Johannes Kepler Essay1952 Words   |  8 PagesThe 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 astronomicalRead 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. 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