Reference
- Kepler, Johannes (1571-1630)German astronomer who combined great mathematical skills with patience and an almost mystical sense of universal harmony. He is particularly remembered for what are now known as Kepler's laws of motion. These had a profound influence on Isaac Newton and hence on all modern science. Kepler was also absorbed with the forces that govern the whole universe and he was one of the first and most powerful advocates of Copernican heliocentric (Sun-centred) cosmology.
Kepler was born on 27 December 1571 in Weil der Statt near Stuttgart, Germany. He was not a healthy child and since it was apparently thought that he was capable only of a career in the ministry, he was sent for religious training in Leonberg, Adelberg, and Maulbronn. One event that impressed him deeply during his early years was the viewing of the ‘great’ comet of 1577 and his interest in astronomy probably dates from that time. He passed his baccalaureate at the University of Tübingen in 1588 and then returned to Maulbronn for a year. From 1589 to 1591 he studied philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy under Michael Mästlin at the University of Tübingen; yet although he showed great aptitude and promise and obtained his MA in 1591, he then embarked on a three-year programme of theological training. This was interrupted in the last year when he was nominated for a teaching post in mathematics and astronomy in Graz. It was during this teaching period that he abandoned his plans for a career in the ministry and concentrated on astronomy. He wrote his first major paper while at Graz and attracted the attention of other notable astronomers of the time, particularly Tycho Brahe and Galileo.
Kepler was a Lutheran and so was frequently caught up in the religious troubles of his age. In 1598 a purge forced him to leave Graz. He travelled to Prague and spent a year there before he returned to Graz; he was expelled again and arrived back in Prague, where he became Tycho Brahe's assistant in 1600. Brahe died a few months later, in 1601, and Kepler succeeded him as Imperial Mathematician to Emperor Rudolph II. On his deathbed Brahe requested that Kepler complete the Rudolphine Astronomical Tables, a task that Kepler finished in 1627...
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Perspectives
The Harmonies of the World
The Harmony of the World, by Johannes Kepler, is not only a seminal work in the history of astronomy, but a case study in the creative process of discovery. By rejecting empiricism and sense certainty, Kepler used his mental instruments, geometry and music, to investigate the harmony which orders all fundamental physical processes. The same mental processes which make humans unique must be coherent with the principles of creation and development of the universe as a whole. Kepler is remembered today chiefly for the 3 laws of planetary motion known after him. Rejecting the view of those who regarded astronomical hypotheses as mathematical fictions, Kepler sought to derive the true motions of the planets from physical causes. Yet he combined his search for physical causes with a vision of the world as a manifestation of divine harmony. Kepler's book contradicts Aristotle, who held science back for centuries because of his witting fraud upon the discoveries of Pythagoras, Thales, et al. Aristotle misrepresented the ideas concerning Music, Harmonics, Geometry as well as Astronomy, which Plato described in the Epinomis to be the fount of all knowledge. In this volume, Kepler proves that the pre-Aristotelean hypothesis of a helio-centric universe is correct, and provides the needed data to demonstrate that the planets arrange their orbits around the sun in the manner of a musical scale. Here one can understand the deeper meaning of Harmony, beyond what we hear in music. Kepler seeks out causes, in the musical domain, as well as in the astrophysical domain. Up to the time of this book, no one had solved the puzzle. Though written centuries ago, The Harmony of the World remains a work of genius.
Johannes Kepler and the Three Laws of Planetary Motion
Johannes Kepler is a fascinating man who would revolutionize humanity's conception of the cosmos and its place within them. He would replace the Ptolemaic system with his three laws that described the orbital motion of the planets around the Sun. This scientist's work continues to inform and facilitate modern advances in technology, astronomy, and astrophysics. In addition to being an enthralling life and times account of a great thinker, this biography also supports Common Core standards for the reading of biographies, historical and scientific accounts, the analyzing of the relationship between primary and secondary sources, and citing evidence to support that analysis.
The Astronomer and the Witch
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was one of the most admired astronomers who ever lived and a key figure in the scientific revolution. A defender of Copernicus's sun-centred universe, he famously discovered that planets move in ellipses, and defined the three laws of planetary motion. Perhaps lesswell known is that in 1615, when Kepler was at the height of his career, his widowed mother Katharina was accused of witchcraft. The proceedings led to a criminal trial that lasted six years, with Kepler conducting his mother's defence.In The Astronomer and the Witch, Ulinka Rublack pieces together the tale of this extraordinary episode in Kepler's life, one which takes us to the heart of his changing world. First and foremost an intense family drama, the story brings to life the world of a small Lutheran community in the centreof Europe at a time of deep religious and political turmoil - a century after the Reformation, and on the threshold of the Thirty Years' War.Kepler's defence of his mother also offers us a fascinating glimpse into the great astronomer's world view, on the cusp between Reformation and scientific revolution. While advancing rational explanations for the phenomena which his mother's accusers attributed to witchcraft, Kepler nevertheless didnot call into question the existence of magic and witches. On the contrary, he clearly believed in them. And, as the story unfolds, it appears that there were moments when even Katharina's children struggled to understand what their mother had done...
Kepler's Witch
Set against the backdrop of the witchcraft trial of his mother, this fascinating biography of Johannes Kepler, "the Protestant Galileo" and 16th century mathematician and astronomer who discovered the three basic laws of planetary motion, reveals the surprisingly spiritual nature of the quest of early modern science. In the style of Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter, Connor's book vividly brings to life the tidal forces of Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and social upheaval in the early days of the modern world. The wall between Science and Religion has not always been so high. While in the 21st century, we have become used to mechanical solar systems and Godless universes, in the early days of the scientific revolution, many scientists explored the natural world for spiritual reasons. This was especially true for Johannes Kepler, who discovered the three basic laws of planetary motion. He was in many ways the Protestant Galileo, persecuted for his support of the Copernican system. Along the way, a neighbour lady accused his mother of witchcraft, and Kepler abandoned his post as the Imperial mathematician for a time to defend her. James Connor, an author whose star is on the rise, tells the story of Kepler's life as a pilgrimage, a spiritual journey into the modern world through war and disease and terrible injustice, a journey reflected in the evolution of Kepler's geometrical model of the cosmos into a musical model, harmony into greater harmony. The leitmotif of the witch trial stitches the biography together and adds a third dimension to Kepler's life by setting his personal life deep within his own times. The acts of this trial, including Kepler's letters and the accounts of the witnesses, have been published in their original German dialects but have never before been translated into English. As Dava Sobel did as part of her work on Galileo's Daughter, Connor has translated the witch trial documents into English for the first time. David Koch, the Deputy Principal Investigator for NASA's Kepler Mission, provides a foreword revealing Kepler's many contributions to the world of science. Kepler is a man whose name every student of science knows, an icon of the modern age, but few know anything the man himself.
Johannes Kepler
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Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician, who continued the work he started with astronomer Tycho Brahe. He developed the laws of planetary motion and determined orbits are not perfect circles.
Johannes Kepler: Astrologist and Astronomer to the Emperor
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowThe Reformation provides the impetus to question old ideas including those found in astronomy. Rudolf the 2nd hires Johannes Kepler as an astrological advisor. Kepler uses his skills of math and observation for both astronomy and astrology.
The Physics Demonstration in the Sky
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In the first of two episodes on motion in the heavens, investigate the connection between Isaac Newton's laws of motion and the earlier laws of planetary motion discovered empirically by Johannes Kepler. Find that Kepler's third law is the ideal method for measuring the mass of practically any phenomenon in astrophysics. Also, study the mathematics behind Kepler's second law.
Online Resources
- Johannes Kepler in Ulm Revisited: New Aspects of Old Known Facts: A Tribute in Honor of Kepler’s 450th BirthdayKepler has been the subject of the Mathematical Tourist column several times, partly concentrating on his life, e.g., childhood and youth in Weil der Stadt and Leonberg [1] and his second marriage in Eferding near Linz [52], partly focusing on monuments in Weil der Stadt [3] and Graz [34]. Moreover, his stay in Ulm, the old free imperial town in southwest Germany, has been the subject of a short note [37], in which, however, significant aspects were overlooked. Thus several memorial plaques and their connections to the emperors who appointed Kepler as well as his work and life were not mentioned, inscriptions and symbols misinterpreted, and last but not least, in the last few years, new aspects of old known facts have been revealed. Our intention is to take the reader on a guided tour through the city of Ulm anew, with the hope that mathematical tourists visiting Ulm will join us in Kepler’s footsteps as enthusiastically as we did. And we shall reveal a mysterious mistake, concealed in the most prominent Kepler plaque at the old town hall, that has been waiting to be explained for more than a hundred years.
- The Starry Universe of Johannes KeplerJohannes Kepler described the Copernican universe as consisting of a central, small, brilliant sun with its planetary system, all surrounded by giant stars. These stars were far larger than, and much dimmer than, the sun -- his De Stella Nova shows that every visible star must exceed the size of the Earth's orbit, and the most prominent stars may exceed the size of the entire planetary system. His other writings, including his response to Ingoli, his Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo, and his Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae, also reflect this Copernican universe. To Kepler, such a universe was an illustration of divine power -- and solid evidence against the stars being suns, against the universe of Giordano Bruno. Kepler's starry universe was in fact the Copernican universe supported by observations of the stars, which showed them to have measureable apparent sizes. Not until the later seventeenth century were those apparent sizes shown to be spurious, allowing for a universe in which the stars were suns.
Gravitation and Kepler’s Laws Of Motion
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowPhysics is frequently one of the hardest subjects for students to tackle because it is a combination of two of the toughest subjects for most students: Math and Word Problems. What sets this series apart from other physics teaching tools is that the concepts are taught entirely through step-by step example problems of increasing difficulty. It works by introducing each new concept in an easy to understand way and using example problems that are worked out step-by-step and line by line to completion. If a student has a problem with coursework or homework, simply find a similar problem fully worked on in the series and review for the steps needed to solve the problem. Students will immediately improve their problem-solving skills which will help with homework and exams and will have a reference for many of the commonly asked problems in Physics. This program teaches the concepts of the gravitational field and gravitational force and introduces Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. Then he works out problems, one step at a time, which demonstrate how to predict the orbits of the planets, or a satellite above the Earth. Each teachers guide includes subject matter revision and suggestions on how to present material, questions to ask students and class projects to help illustrate the key concepts. Resource Chapter - Includes Recommended Books & Physics Websites.