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Mysterium Cosmographicum (The Cosmographic Mystery)

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Mysterium Cosmographicum (The Cosmographic Mystery) Planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus. German Lutheran mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and a key figure in the 17th century astronomical revolution best known for his laws of planetary motion, which provided one of the foundations of Issac Newton's law of universal gravitation Childhood born 27 December , 1571 – Weil der Stadt (near Stuttgart) premature child weak and sickly the Kepler family fortune was in decline poor conditions 1575 - smallpox eye disorders and various other illnesses mother interest in astronomy 1577 - observed the Great Comet 1580 - observed another astronomical event, a lunar eclipse aged 8 -1583: grammar school in Leonsberg 1584-1586: monastery school in Adelsberg 1587-1588: seminary in Maulbronn 1589: University of Tuebingen studied mainly theology and philosophy, but also mathematics and astronomy his teacher Maestlin: discovered his mathematic skills private lessons (Copernican system) Time in Graz (1594 – 1600) teacher of mathematics and astronomy at the Protestant school in Graz, Austria (1594) first major astronomical work 1597 - Mysterium Cosmographicum (The Cosmographic Mystery) 1597 marriage 5 children (2 died in infancy; 1602 – daughter, 1604 and 1607 – sons) 1621 -a second edition of Mysterium, including footnotes with corrections and improvements he had achieved in the 25 years since its first publication Kepler's Platonic solid model of the Solar system from Mysterium Cosmographicum (1600) 1604 - Astronomiae Pars Optica (The Optical Part of Astronomy) - today generally recognized as the foundation of modern optics 1604 - a bright new evening star - systematically observed the nebula 1606 - De Stella Nova (described the new star) 1609 - Astronomica nova (A New Astronomy)— including the first two laws of planetary motion years after that research focused on preparations for the Rudolphine Tables Time in Prague (1600-1612) after refusing to convert to Catholicism - Kepler and his family banished from Graz an assistant to astronomer Tycho Brahe in Prague Tycho's death (1601) imperial mathematician responsibility to complete Tycho’s unfinished work (next 11 years = the most productive of his life) 1610 -Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo (Conversation with the Starry Messenger (after Galileo’s discovery of four satellites orbiting Jupiter) and Narratio de Jovis Satellitibus (own telescopic observations of the moons) 1611 - a manuscript , eventually be published (posthumously) as Somnium (The Dream) 1611 - Strena Seu de Nive Sexangula (A New Year's Gift of Hexagonal Snow) first description of the hexagonal symmetry of snowflakes 1611- growing political-religious tension in Prague came to a head – wife ill, children smallpox, first born son died Linz to arrange a position as teacher and district mathematician; wife again ill and died Linz (1612 -1626) a mathematics teacher in Linz, Austria, financial security and religious freedom 1613 - first publication De vero Anno (deals with the year of Christ's birth) 1613 –second marriage – 6 children (first 3 children died in childhood) 1615 - Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum ( measuring the volume of containers such as wine barrels) 1615 – finished first volume of Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae (Epitome of Copernican Astronomy) - printed in 1617, second in 1620, third in 1621 1617 -1621 -Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae (Epitome of Copernican Astronomy) the most influential introduction to heliocentric astronomy; - all three laws of planetary motion and attempt to explain heavenly motions through physical causes 1617-1624 - published 6 astrological calendars (forecast planetary positions and weather as well as political events political and theological tensions) 1617 – mother accused of witchcraft 1620 -21 in prison 1619, was Harmonices Mundi (Harmony of theWorld) - harmonic theory, including the 3rd law of planetary motion ) 1623 - completed the Rudolphine Tables (printed 1627) again religious tension—the root of the ongoing 30 Years’ War—once again Kepler and his family in jeopardy had to move 1628 - an official adviser to General Wallenstein (provided astronomical calculations for his astrologers and wrote horoscopes) His horoscope for General final years –travelling: Wallenstein Prague – Linz – Ulm –Sagan – Regensburg died : 15 November 1630 Kepler's self-authored poetic epitaph survived the times Mensus eram coelos, nunc terrae metior umbras Mens coelestis erat, corporis umbra iacet. I measured the skies, now the shadows I measure Skybound was the mind, earthbound the body rests. Kepler’s laws The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.(1) A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.(2) The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit. (3) Kepler's laws, although not rigidly true, are sufficiently near to the truth to have led to the discovery of the law of attraction of the bodies of the solar system. The deviation from complete accuracy is due to the facts, that the planets are not of inappreciable mass, that, in consequence, they disturb each other's orbits about the Sun, and, by their action on the Sun itself, cause the periodic time of each to be shorter than if the Sun were a fixed body, in the subduplicate ratio of the mass of the Sun to the sum of the masses of the Sun and Planet; these errors are appreciable although very small, since the mass of the largest of the planets, Jupiter, is less than 1/1000th of the Sun's mass. — Sir Isaac Newton In Isaac Newton and Percival Frost (ed.) Newton's Principia: Sections I, II, III (1863), 216. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment. Johannes Kepler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler%27s_laws_of_pl anetary_motion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler http://www.hpo- online.de/images/436pxjohanneskepler1610.jpg http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/109N/1995/l ectures/kepler.html http://www.keplerraum.at/lebenslauf.html http://www.lehrer.uni- karlsruhe.de/~za146/barock/kepler.htm http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/scientists /johanneskepler.html http://www.oppisworld.de/zeit/biograf/kepler.html .
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  • Hints Into Kepler's Method
    Stefano Gattei [email protected] Hints into Kepler’s method ABSTRACT The Italian Academy, Columbia University February 4, 2009 Some of Johannes Kepler’s works seem very different in character. His youthful Mysterium cosmographicum (1596) argues for heliocentrism on the basis of metaphysical, astronomical, astrological, numerological, and architectonic principles. By contrast, Astronomia nova (1609) is far more tightly argued on the basis of only a few dynamical principles. In the eyes of many, such a contrast embodies a transition from Renaissance to early modern science. However, Kepler did not subsequently abandon the broader approach of his early works: similar metaphysical arguments reappeared in Harmonices mundi libri V (1619), and he reissued the Mysterium cosmographicum in a second edition in 1621, in which he qualified only some of his youthful arguments. I claim that the conceptual and stylistic features of the Astronomia nova – as well as of other “minor” works, such as Strena seu De nive sexangula (1611) or Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum (1615) – are intimately related and were purposely chosen because of the response he knew to expect from the astronomical community to the revolutionary changes in astronomy he was proposing. Far from being a stream-of-consciousness or merely rhetorical kind of narrative, as many scholars have argued, Kepler’s expository method was carefully calculated both to convince his readers and to engage them in a critical discussion in the joint effort to know God’s design. By abandoning the perspective of the inductivist philosophy of science, which is forced by its own standards to portray Kepler as a “sleepwalker,” I argue that the key lies in the examination of Kepler’s method: whether considering the functioning and structure of the heavens or the tiny geometry of the little snowflakes, he never hesitated to discuss his own intellectual journey, offering a rational reconstruction of the series of false starts, blind alleys, and failures he encountered.
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