Kepler, Johannes

-

Kepler, Johannes (1571-1630), German astronomer and natural philosopher, noted for formulating and verifying the three laws of planetary motion. These laws are now known as Kepler's laws.

Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt in Württemberg and studied theology and classics at the University of Tübingen. There he was influenced by a mathematics professor, Michael Maestlin, an adherent of the heliocentric theory of planetary motion first developed by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. Kepler accepted Copernican theory (see Copernican System) immediately, believing that the simplicity of Copernican planetary ordering must have been God's plan. In 1594, when Kepler left Tübingen for Graz, Austria, he worked out a complex geometric hypothesis to account for distances between the planetary orbits—orbits that he mistakenly assumed were circular. (Kepler later deduced that planetary orbits are elliptic; nevertheless, these preliminary calculations agreed with observations to within 5 percent.) Kepler then proposed that the sun emits a force that diminishes inversely with distance and pushes the planets around in their orbits. Kepler published his account in a treatise entitled Mysterium Cosmographicum (Cosmographic Mystery) in 1596. This work is significant because it presented the first comprehensive and cogent account of the geometrical advantages of Copernican theory.

Kepler held the chair of astronomy and mathematics at Graz University from 1594 until 1600, when he became assistant to the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in the latter's observatory near Prague. On the death of Brahe in 1601, Kepler assumed his position as imperial mathematician and court astronomer to Rudolf II, Holy Roman emperor. One of his major works during this period was Astronomia Nova (New Astronomy, 1609), the great culmination of his painstaking efforts to calculate the orbit of Mars. This treatise contains statements of two of Kepler's so-called laws of planetary motion. The first is that the planets move in elliptic orbits with the sun at one focus; the second, or “area rule,” states that a hypothetical line from the sun to a planet sweeps out equal areas of an ellipse during equal intervals of time; in other words, the closer a planet comes to the sun, the more rapidly it moves.

In 1612 Kepler became mathematician to the states of Oberösterreich (Upper Austria). While living in Linz, he published his Harmonice Mundi (Harmony of the World, 1619), the final section of which contained another discovery about planetary motion: The ratio of the cube of a planet's distance from the sun and the square of the planet's orbital period is a constant and is the same for all planets. See Orbit.

At about the same time he began publishing a book that took three years to appear, the Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae (Epitome of Copernican Astronomy, 1618-1621), which brought all of Kepler's discoveries together in a single volume. Equally important, it became the first textbook of astronomy to be based on Copernican principles, and for the next three decades it was a major influence in converting many astronomers to Keplerian Copernicanism.

The last major work to appear in Kepler's lifetime was the Tabulae Rudolfinae (Rudolfine Tables, 1625). Based on Brahe's data, the new tables of planetary motion reduced the mean errors from 5° to within 10′ of the actual position of a planet. The English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton relied heavily on Kepler's theories and observations in formulating his theory of gravitational force.

Kepler died on November 15, 1630, in Regensburg.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hanaoka Seishu

-
Image
A stamp depicting the image of Hanaoka Seishu. Hanaoka Seishu (1760-1835), Japanese physician and pioneer of anesthetic surgery. Hanaoka studied traditional Sino-Japanese medicine, as well as what was then known about Western surgery in Japan. For over two decades he experimented with various drugs. Ultimately he created mafutsusan, an anesthetic compound made from six traditional plant-based drugs, including the alkaloids aconite (from the monkshood plant) and datura (from jimsonweed ). In 1805, using mafutsusan as an anesthetic, Hanaoka removed a tumor during breast cancer surgery. This was the world's first recorded successful surgical operation with anesthesia. Later, Hanaoka used the drug for other surgical operations, developing techniques for bladder stone removal and for amputation. Hanaoka attracted many students, and his surgical techniques became known as the Hanaoka method.
Read more

Modern Agriculture

-
In the N and W United States the era of mechanized agriculture began with the invention of such farm machines as the reaper, the cultivator, the thresher, and the combine. Other revolutionary innovations, e.g., the tractor, continued to appear over the years, leading to a new type of large-scale agriculture. Modern science has also revolutionized food processing; refrigeration, for example, has made possible the large meatpacking plants and shipment and packaging of perishable foods. Urbanization has fostered the specialties of market gardening and truck farming. Harvesting operations (see harvester) have been mechanized for almost every plant product grown. Breeding programs have developed highly specialized animal, plant, and poultry varieties, thus increasing production efficiency. The development of genetic engineering has given rise to genetically modified transgenic crops and, to a lesser degree, livestock that possess a gene from an unrelated species that confers a desired quali...
Read more

Brahe, Tycho

-
Image
Brahe, Tycho (1546-1601), Danish astronomer, who made precise, comprehensive astronomical measurements of the solar system and more than 700 stars . The data Brahe accumulated was superior to all other astronomical measurements made until the invention of the telescope in the early 17th century. Brahe was born in Knudstrup in southern Sweden (then part of Denmark). He studied law and philosophy at the universities of Copenhagen and Leipzig; at night, however, Brahe busied himself with observing the stars. With no instruments other than a globe and a pair of compasses, he succeeded in detecting grave errors in the standard astronomical tables, and set about correcting them. In 1572 he discovered a supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia . After Brahe had spent some time traveling and lecturing, Frederick II, king of Denmark and Norway, offered to provide Brahe with funds to construct and equip an astronomical observatory on the island of Hven (now Ven). Brahe accepted the proposal,...
Read more