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The field of astronomy made gigantic leaps during the scientific revolution, and it was the so-called “irrational” thinking or “sleepwalking” of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) that allowed him to contribute greatly to the field of astronomy. Even though the focus of this paper will be Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion, it is necessary to place his work in the context of the scientific revolution during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Therefore, to fully understand the work of Kepler we must first understand the influence that Nicolai Copernicus (1473-1543) and his proposal of a heliocentric system had on Kepler and his formation of the three laws of planetary motion. ...
However, it was not until the work of Kepler that this heliocentric model was more fully accepted, because Copernicus believed that even though the sun was the center of the universe, the planets rotated around the sun in spherical orbits. Kepler quickly accepted the heliocentric system proposed by Copernicus because it provided a simple explanation for two previously unexplainable phenomenon, the varying brightness of planets and retrograde motion. The planets in this system will vary in brightness because they are not always the same distance from the earth, and the retrograde motion observed in planets can be explained by geometry and the fact that planets with smaller orbits are moving faster. (Johannes 2000). However, the heliocentric model could not explain all aspects of planetary movement, and the heliocentric system would not gain popularity until Kepler discovered the orbits of the planets were elliptical, not spherical as previously believed.
Ironically, it was through trying to prove that the orbital path of Mars was spherical, that Kepler discovered the orbits of the planets to be elliptical. Kepler became the assistant and eventual successor of Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), who greatly increased the accuracy of naked-eye observations of the planets in relation to the stars, and gathered the largest and most accurate collection of planetary observations, especially for the planet Mars.
Approximate Word count = 1463
Approximate Pages = 5.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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