DOCSLIB.ORG

Pioneers in Optics: Zacharias Janssen and Johannes Kepler Michael W

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Pioneers in Optics: Zacharias Janssen and Johannes Kepler Michael W Downloaded from MicroscopyPioneers https://www.cambridge.org/core Pioneers in Optics: Zacharias Janssen and Johannes Kepler Michael W. Davidson National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306 . IP address: [email protected] 170.106.35.76 Zacharias Janssen ough rudimentary when compared with modern (1580-1638) models, the Janssen microscope was an important advance Zacharias Janssen is generally believed to be the inventor the from contemporary use of a single lens for magni cation , on compound microscope. However, because the accomplishment purposes. With further developments in microscopy, a 30 Sep 2021 at 09:03:39 is generally agreed among historians to be dated in the 1590s, formerly unknown and invisible world was to become readily most scholars believe that his father, Hans, must have played apparent. By the end of the seventeenth century, Robert Hooke an important role in the creation of the instrument. e pair had employed his version of the compound microscope to worked together as spectacle makers in Middleburg, Holland, observe organisms, such as fossils, diatoms, and even cells, not far from Hans Lippershey, another optical scientist and Marcello Malpighi had discovered capillaries. Modern who is o en alternatively credited with the invention of the compound light microscopes are able to reveal many more , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at microscope. wonders because, under optimal conditions, the instruments e Dutch diplomat are capable of ultimate magni cations between 1000 and 2000 William Boreel was a times a specimen’s true size. longtime acquaintance of e Janssen Drawtube Microscope. As discussed Zacharias Janssen who had above, the origin of the light optical microscope is a matter written to him about the of debate, but most scholars agree that the invention of device in letters. Boreel saw the compound microscope can be credited to Zacharias the microscope for himself Janssen in the late sixteenth century. At that time but only years later when eyeglasses were beginning to enjoy widespread use and this it had already fallen into focused a great deal of the hands of another family attention on optics and friend, Cornelius Drebbel. lenses. e microscope When the physician of illustrated in this https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms the French King publicly section was built by sought information Zacharias Janssen, regarding the origin of probably with the help the microscope during of his father Hans, in The fi rst compound microscope (circa 1595). the 1650s, Boreel responded, relating information about the the year 1595. Janssens and recounting the device they had created and his experience surrounding its use. Johannes Kepler e device fashioned by the Janssens, and described by (1571-1630) Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Boreel, rose vertically from a brass tripod shaped like dolphins . and was almost two and a half feet long. e main brass tube Weilder Stadt, Wurttemburg, in the Holy Roman Empire https://doi.org/10.1017/S1551929509991052 was only an inch or two in diameter and held an ebony disc (now Germany). He was a sickly child with poor parents, at its base and a lens at each end. However, in a Middleburg but his obvious intelligence earned him a scholarship to the museum another microscope bears the Janssen name but is of University of Tubingen. At Tubingen, Michael Maestlin, one of a di erent design. e museum instrument consists of three the leading astronomers of the day, taught Kepler astronomy. tubes, two of which are drawtubes that can slide into the third e astronomy of the curriculum was geocentric astronomy in tube that acts as an outer casing. Lenses at the ends of each which it was thought that all seven “planets”—Moon, Mercury, drawtube serve as magnifying elements. e lens connected to Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn—moved around the the eyepiece is bi-convex and the one serving as the objective Earth. Maestlin chose to teach Kepler even more advanced is plano-convex. Capable of achieving a magni cation range astronomy by introducing him to the new heliocentric, between three and nine times the true size of an object, the cosmological system of Copernicus. microscope was apparently built to be used by hand because it Kepler, who was a profoundly religious man, was persuaded has no mounting mechanism. by Maestlin to abandon plans for ordination and instead 44 doi: 10.1017/S1551929509991052 www.microscopy-today.com • 2009 November Downloaded from Automate Your Image Analysis https://www.cambridge.org/core Upgrade To P L U S 7.0 Today! . IP address: 170.106.35.76 , on 30 Sep 2021 at 09:03:39 , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at C M Y Composite image derived from 16 Z-stack sets CM from 3 uorescent channels. Image courtesy of Richard Cole, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY. MY CY CMY K https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Image-Pro Plus has been the researchers’ choice in software for counting and classifying objects, Special Limited automating measurements, 3D rendering, and Time Upgrade object tracking for more than twenty years. Pricing - Image-Pro Plus 7.0 now includes: Act Now! • Faster multi-dimensional acquisition . • Live analysis tools https://doi.org/10.1017/S1551929509991052 • Just-in-time display of large image sets • Larger library of easy-to-use custom macros • Surface measurement tools Visit our website or contact us for the sales representative in your area. New brochures and online resources available at www.mediacy.com Media Cybernetics, Inc. + 1 301 495 3305 www.mediacy.com [email protected] Downloaded from MicroscopyPioneers https://www.cambridge.org/core take up a post teaching mathematics in Graz. In 1596, while at was excommunicated. is caused him much pain, but he was Graz, he wrote the rst outspoken defense of the Copernican never successful in getting this ban li ed even with his high social system, the Mysterium standing as Imperial Mathematician. Cosmographicum. Religious Kepler moved to Linz, and in 1619 he published Harmonices intolerance increased in the Mundi in which he describes his third law of planetary motion. following years and Kepler According to many experts, it was this law—not an apple—that moved to Prague to work led Newton to his law of gravitation. IP address: with the renowned Danish In Kepler’s book Astronomia Pars Optica, for which he astronomer, Tycho Brahe. earned the title of founder of modern optics, he was the rst to He inherited Brahe’s post discover many of the common theories of optics. He was the rst 170.106.35.76 as Imperial Mathematician to use a pin hole camera to investigate the formation of pictures, when Brahe died in 1601. the rst to explain the process of vision by refraction within the Using the precise data eye, the rst to formulate eyeglass designs for nearsightedness , on that Brahe had collected, and farsightedness, and the rst to explain the use of both eyes for 30 Sep 2021 at 09:03:39 Kepler discovered that depth perception. the orbit of Mars was In his book Dioptrice (a term coined by Kepler and still an ellipse. In 1609, he used today), he was the rst to describe real, virtual, upright, published Astronomia Nova and inverted images and the concept of magni cation. He was delineating his discoveries, the rst to explain the principles of how a telescope works and which are now called Kepler’s rst two laws of planetary motion. the rst to discover and describe the properties of total internal , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at is work established Kepler as the “father of modern science,” re¦ ection. documenting how, for the rst time, a scientist dealt with a Kepler died in November of 1630 in Regensburg (now in multitude of imperfect data to arrive at a fundamental law of Germany) a er a brief illness. nature. In 1612 Lutherans were forced out of Prague, and Kepler https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms www.arcnano.com OEM and Custom FIB Apertures design your Custom Aperture at www.arcapertures.com . https://doi.org/10.1017/S1551929509991052 Advanced Research Corporation 651 789 9000 SEM - FIB - IC Edit - AFM - Analytical Services - Failure Analysis - Testing Thin Films - Photolithography - Precision CNC Machining - Custom Tooling Custom Electronics - Flip Chip Services - Flip Chip Tooling - FC 150 46 www.microscopy-today.com • 2009 November Q u e m e s a Downloaded from 2 0 0 9 https://www.cambridge.org/core MegaView G2 KeenView G2 2 0 0 8 C a n t e g a G 2 . IP address: 2 0 0 7 Quemesa 170.106.35.76 11 Megapixel High Speed TEM Camera , on V e l e t a 30 Sep 2021 at 09:03:39 2 0 0 6 EVERYTHING COUNTS High sensitivity and contrast at optimal resolution are the ultimate goals for each TEM camera. Every single photon generated in the scintillator per incident electron is needed. This means the scintillator has to be optimized for the entire pear-shaped interaction volume to achieve maximum signal. , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at M o r a d a 2 0 0 4 Consider the Quemesa, the new 11 Megapixel, on-axis TEM camera by Olympus Soft Imaging Solutions, where scintillator thickness and pixel size are perfectly matched to the dimensions of the entire interaction volume. This ensures the maximum number of photons is detected and guarantees an outstanding output signal from the cooled CCD chip: MegaView III the essential requirement for high sensitivity and excellent 2 0 0 1 contrast. 9 µm 18 µm But Quemesa offers so much more: a visual fi eld the size of a photo plate and high frame rates enabling real live-image work Obtaining the best possible photon yield in the scintillator per incident electron is done on your monitor.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Origins of the Ptolemaic Tradition and Its Adoption and Replacement in Colonial America
    The Origins of the Ptolemaic Tradition and its Adoption and Replacement in Colonial America Master Thesis By Ben Baumann 11592583 June 2018 University of Amsterdam Graduate School of Humanities Master’s Program in Classics and Ancient Civilizations: Ancient Studies First Supervisor: Dr. Jan Willem van Henten Second Supervisor: Dr. Fred Spier Baumann 1 I. Introduction The mapping of the universe and the attempt to understand the cosmos through scholarly investigation has been a constant endeavor of the human race since ancient times. This investigation is known as cosmography. In this thesis, I will analyze how early Colonial American scholars made sense of ancient Greek understandings of cosmography. In particular, I will focus on the way these Greek ideas shaped American thinking not only about the cosmos itself, but also about the way cosmographic understanding became intertwined with views about God and theology. When they first arrived in North America, Colonial Americans generally had a cosmography that was based on the Ptolemaic tradition. But, once they became established in the new world, and especially after the founding of Harvard University, a cosmographic revolution taking place in Europe would begin to resonate in the so-called New World. Thus, some Colonial American scholars willingly engaged in contemplation of the new outlook and proved receptive to the ideas of Nicolas Copernicus. Not surprisingly, in a land where scientific and religious thought overlapped so extensively, this caused heated scholarly debate over the topic and even resulted in student protests at Harvard University. The record of these debates can be traced back to the 17th-century writings of Colonial America, such as several astronomical almanacs, that since have been preserved as vitally significant artifacts of intellectual life in the colonies.
    [Show full text]
  • University of California, San Diego
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO THE SCIENCE OF THE STARS IN DANZIG FROM RHETICUS TO HEVELIUS A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History (Science Studies) by Derek Jensen Committee in charge: Professor Robert S. Westman, Chair Professor Luce Giard Professor John Marino Professor Naomi Oreskes Professor Donald Rutherford 2006 The dissertation of Derek Jensen is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2006 iii FOR SARA iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page........................................................................................................... iii Dedication ................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ...................................................................................................... v List of Figures ........................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgments..................................................................................................... vii Vita, Publications and Fields of Study...................................................................... x A Note on Dating
    [Show full text]
  • Copernicus and Tycho Brahe
    THE NEWTONIAN REVOLUTION – Part One Philosophy 167: Science Before Newton’s Principia Class 2 16th Century Astronomy: Copernicus and Tycho Brahe September 9, 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. The Copernican Revolution .................................................................................................................. 1 A. Ptolemaic Astronomy: e.g. Longitudes of Mars ................................................................... 1 B. A Problem Raised for Philosophy of Science ....................................................................... 2 C. Background: 13 Centuries of Ptolemaic Astronomy ............................................................. 4 D. 15th Century Planetary Astronomy: Regiomantanus ............................................................. 5 E. Nicolaus Copernicus: A Brief Biography .............................................................................. 6 F. Copernicus and Ibn al-Shāţir (d. 1375) ……………………………………………………. 7 G. The Many Different Copernican Revolutions ........................................................................ 9 H. Some Comments on Kuhn’s View of Science ……………………………………………... 10 II. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelstium (1543) ..................................................................................... 11 A. From Basic Ptolemaic to Basic Copernican ........................................................................... 11 B. A New Result: Relative Orbital Radii ................................................................................... 12 C. Orbital
    [Show full text]
  • Johannes Kepler
    PORTRAIT I FAMOUS OPTICIAN Johannes Kepler The German mathematician and astronomer MAIN DATES Johannes Kepler is above all famous for discovering the eponymous laws governing planetary motion. Born 27 December 1571, Weil der Stadt (Germany) Combining Tycho Brahe’s meticulous observations 1601 Mathematicus imperialis, Prague and his own theoretical predictions, his astronomical 1609 First two Kepler laws tables were some of the most enduringly accurate 1611 Dioptricae publication ever established. They provided a firm footing for 1619 The Harmony of the World's third law Copernican theory in the face of the then universally Deceased 15 November 1630, Regensburg (Germany) acknowledged model of a geocentric universe. Despite A portrait of Johannes Kepler poor eyesight that prevented him from carrying out original experimental research, he became a major figure in the field of optics, overhauling all introduce him to the heliocentric theory put forward by its fundamental concepts and developing a sound Nicolaus Copernicus [1473-1543]. In a world dominated by mathematical approach that supported Galileo’s first the Church and the geocentric model devised by Claudius telescopic observations. Ptolemy [ca. AD 90 – ca. 168], which placed the Earth at the centre of the universe, this act was nothing short of unlaw- Riad HAIDAR, [email protected] ful. However, his teacher’s arguments were so compelling and the reasoning so seductive that Kepler soon became a convinced Copernican. As this new stance was obviously ohannes Kepler was born on 27 December 1571 to a incompatible with the role of a pastor, Kepler abandoned his family of modest means in the town of Weil der Stadt.
    [Show full text]
  • The Golden Ratio
    IOSR Journal Of Applied Physics (IOSR-JAP) e-ISSN: 2278-4861.Volume 12, Issue 2 Ser. II (Mar. – Apr. 2020), PP 36-57 www.Iosrjournals.Org The Golden Ratio Nafish Sarwar Islam Abstract:This paper is all about golden ratio Phi = 1.61803398874989484820458683436563811772030917980576286213544862270526046281890 244970720720418939113748475408807538689175212663386222353693179318006076672635 443338908659593958290563832266131992829026788067520876689250171169620703222104 321626954862629631361443814975870122034080588795445474924618569536486444924104 432077134494704956584678850987433944221254487706647809158846074998871240076521 705751797883416625624940758906970400028121042762177111777805315317141011704666 599146697987317613560067087480710131795236894275219484353056783002287856997829 778347845878228911097625003026961561700250464338243776486102838312683303724292 675263116533924731671112115881863851331620384005222165791286675294654906811317 159934323597349498509040947621322298101726107059611645629909816290555208524790 352406020172799747175342777592778625619432082750513121815628551222480939471234 145170223735805772786160086883829523045926478780178899219902707769038953219681 986151437803149974110692608867429622675756052317277752035361393621076738937645 560606059216589466759551900400555908950229530942312482355212212415444006470340 565734797663972394949946584578873039623090375033993856210242369025138680414577 995698122445747178034173126453220416397232134044449487302315417676893752103068 737880344170093954409627955898678723209512426893557309704509595684401755519881
    [Show full text]
  • Galileo, Ignoramus: Mathematics Versus Philosophy in the Scientific Revolution
    Galileo, Ignoramus: Mathematics versus Philosophy in the Scientific Revolution Viktor Blåsjö Abstract I offer a revisionist interpretation of Galileo’s role in the history of science. My overarching thesis is that Galileo lacked technical ability in mathematics, and that this can be seen as directly explaining numerous aspects of his life’s work. I suggest that it is precisely because he was bad at mathematics that Galileo was keen on experiment and empiricism, and eagerly adopted the telescope. His reliance on these hands-on modes of research was not a pioneering contribution to scientific method, but a last resort of a mind ill equipped to make a contribution on mathematical grounds. Likewise, it is precisely because he was bad at mathematics that Galileo expounded at length about basic principles of scientific method. “Those who can’t do, teach.” The vision of science articulated by Galileo was less original than is commonly assumed. It had long been taken for granted by mathematicians, who, however, did not stop to pontificate about such things in philosophical prose because they were too busy doing advanced scientific work. Contents 4 Astronomy 38 4.1 Adoption of Copernicanism . 38 1 Introduction 2 4.2 Pre-telescopic heliocentrism . 40 4.3 Tycho Brahe’s system . 42 2 Mathematics 2 4.4 Against Tycho . 45 2.1 Cycloid . .2 4.5 The telescope . 46 2.2 Mathematicians versus philosophers . .4 4.6 Optics . 48 2.3 Professor . .7 4.7 Mountains on the moon . 49 2.4 Sector . .8 4.8 Double-star parallax . 50 2.5 Book of nature .
    [Show full text]
  • Copernicus' First Friends: Physical Copernicanism
    Filozofski vestnik Volume/Letnik XXV • Number/Številka 2 • 2004 • 143–166 COPERNICUS’ FIRST FRIENDS: PHYSICAL COPERNICANISM FROM 1543 TO 1610 Katherine A. Tredwell and Peter Barker Early assessments of the Copernican Revolution were hampered by the failure to understand the nature of astronomy in the sixteenth century, as scholars took statements made in praise of Copernicus to be implicit endorsements of his heliocentric cosmology. Gradually this view has been supplanted by the ac- knowledgement that many supposed partisans of Copernicus only endorsed the use of his astronomical models for the calculation of apparent planetary positions, while rejecting or remaining silent on the reality of heliocentrism. A classic example of this shift in historiography concerns Erasmus Reinhold (1511–1553), a professor of mathematics at the University of Wittenberg. Re- inhold’s use of Copernican models in his Prutenic Tables (Tabulae prutenicae, 1551) has led to the mistaken belief that he sanctioned a Sun-centered cos- mology as well. Careful reassessment of his published writings has revealed that he commended certain aspects of Copernicus’ work, such as the elimi- nation of the equant, but showed no interest in heliocentrism (Westman, 1975: pp. 174–178). Other supposed Copernicans, such as Robert Recorde (c. 1510–1558), expressed some openness to the Earth’s motion but left no clear indication of what they thought to be the true system of the world (Rus- sell, 1972: pp. 189–191). Between the publication of Copernicus’ epoch-making book On the Revo- lutions of the Celestial Orbs (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium) in 1543 and the year 1610, only a handful of individuals can be identified with certainty as Copernicans, in the sense that they considered heliocentrism to be physically real and not merely a calculational convenience.
    [Show full text]
  • Biography Johannes Kepler
    Resources Biography Johannes Kepler In an age of upheaval and commotion, Johannes Kepler overcame religious controversy and personal loss to become one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in history. Born in 1571 in Weil der Stadt in what is now Germany, Kepler was raised Lutheran but did not agree with all Lutheran positions. He attended a nearby school, moved on to seminary, and earned a scholarship to the University of Tübingen. He passed his exams in 1591 but stayed on as a graduate student. One of Kepler’s teachers was Michael Maestlin, a leading astronomer of the time. Maestlin taught his advanced students – Kepler among them – about the Copernican system, which stated that the Sun was at the center of the solar system. At the time, the Ptolemaic system was the accepted theory; it stated that the planets and the Sun revolved around Earth. Kepler accepted the Copernican theory, and much of his work was aimed at supporting it. With Maestlin’s encouragement, Kepler decided not to become ordained and instead became a mathematics teacher. In 1596, Kepler published the Mystery of the Cosmos, a cosmological theory he believed helped solidify the Copernican theory. He married at this time. In 1600, Protestants in the area were forced to leave, so Kepler accepted an assistant position to a highly regarded astronomer and imperial mathematician, Tycho Brahe, in Prague. Brahe put Kepler to work on figuring out Mars’ orbit. Orbits were thought to be circular, but this idea conflicted with some astronomical data. Promoted to imperial mathematician after Brahe’s death in 1601, Kepler continued to work on the Mars problem.
    [Show full text]
  • Elements of Natural History in Sidereus Nuncius
    ELEMENTS OF NATURAL HISTORY IN SIDEREUS NUNCIUS DANA JALOBEANU1 Abstract. Scholars often saw Sidereus nuncius as inaugurating a novel genre of scientific writing; one that mixes elements of astronomy and natural philosophy, mixed-mathematics and travel reports, cosmography and the conventions of baroque drawing, elements of humanist pedagogy and elements of natural history. Although some of these influences were subject of extensive treatment, the natural historical elements of Sidereus nuncius were, comparatively, less carefully investigated. And yet, as I will show in this paper, the natural historical outlook of Sidereus nuncius played a significant role in its reception. My purpose in this paper is to investigate some of the elements of natural history present in Sidereus nuncius. Firstly, I show that in writing Sidereus nuncius Galileo often made appeal to the “specialized observations” and “expert reports” of natural historians. Secondly, I show that some of the early readers of Sidereus nuncius, such as Johannes Kepler and Francis Bacon, read Galileo’s book as a natural history. I also discuss the ways in which some of them were read and interpreted in the same vein by some of Galileo’s early readers, such as Johannes Kepler and Francis Bacon. Key words: Galileo, natural history, Sidereus nuncius. 1. INTRODUCTION: THE ADVANTAGE OF TRESPASSING DISCIPLINARY BOUNDARIES Scholars tend to agree that Sidereus nuncius inaugurates a novel genre of scientific writing; that it is quite unlike all the other forms of (scientific) writing extant at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Some have remarked that in writing Dana Jalobeanu University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy, 204 Splaiul Independenţei, Bucharest, Romania; e-mail: [email protected] 1 Research for this paper has been supported from the PCE grant PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0719, From natural history to science held by CELFIS, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest.
    [Show full text]
  • The Astronomy and Cosmology of Copernicus
    The Astronomy and Cosmology of Copernicus t was close to the northernmost coast of Europe, in the city of Torun, that the King of Poland and the Teutonic Knights signed I and sealed the Peace of 1466, which made West Prussia part of Polish territory. And it was in that city, just seven years later and precisely 500 years ago, in 1473, that Nicholas Copernicus was born. We know relatively few biographical facts about Copernicus and vir- tually nothing of his childhood. He grew up far from the centers of Renaissance innovation, in a world sti11largely dominated by medieval patterns of thought. But Copernicus and his contemporaries lived in an age of exploration and of change, and in their lifetimes they put to- gether a renewed picture of astronomy and geography, of mathematics and perspective, of anatomy, and of theology. I When Copernicus was ten years old, his father died, but fortunately his maternal uncle stepped into the breach. Uncle Lucas Watzenrode was then pursuing a successful career in ecclesiastical politics, and in 1489 he became Bishop of Varmia. Thus Uncle Lucas could easily send Copernicus and his younger brother to the old and distinguished University of Cracow. The Collegium Maius was then richly and un- usually endowed with specialists in mathematics and astronomy; Hart- mann Schedel, in his Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, remarked that "Next to St. Anne's church stands a university, which boasts many Selection 9 reprinted from Highlights in Astronomy of the International Astronomical Union, ed. by G. Contopoulos, vol. 3 (1974), pp. 67-85. 162 ASTRONOMY AND COSMOLOGY OF COPERNICUS eminent and learned men, and where numerous arts are taught; the study of astronomy stands highest there.
    [Show full text]
  • EXPLORATION the Origins of Kepler's Third Law a Set
    EXPLORATION The Origins of Kepler’s Third Law A set of historically-based exercises in basic algebra by James J. Madden, Louisiana State University Both observations and theoretical considerations influenced Kepler’s earliest attempts to find a mathematical relationship between the radii and the periods of the planetary orbits. In these notes, we examine the data that Kepler used when he composed his first astronomical work, compare it with modern data and consider how Kepler processed and displayed his data in trying to make sense of it. These notes are intended to provide an opportunity to think deeply about the role of mathematics in science by reliving Kepler’s conceptual journry from observation to physical law. Classroom pilots indicate that this is not yet ready for prime time. I am looking for people willing to help make this into useable classroom material. 1. Introduction. Johannes Kepler was born December 27, 1571 in Weil der Stadt, which lies west of Stuttgart in southwestern Germany. In 1589, he entered the University of T¨ubingen(to the south of Stuttgart). There, his teacher, Michael Maestlin, introduced him to the astronomical theories of Copernicus. After taking his M.A. in 1591, he began studying to become a pastor of the Lutheran Church. In 1594, shortly before completing his studies, he was recommended for a post as mathematics teacher at the Protestant School in Graz, and he accepted. Kepler’s first book on the solar system, Mysterium cosmographicum (“The Secret of the Universe”) was published in 1596. Its chief aim, as he stated in the preface, was to present a theory tying the number, the positions and the motions of the planets— Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were the only known planets at the time—to the five Platonic solids.
    [Show full text]
  • 8. Brahe, Kepler. Laws of Planetary Motion
    Kepler and Brahe Laws of planets motion Tycho Brahe Born: 14 Dec 1546 in Knutstorp, Skane, Denmark (now Svalöv, Sweden Died: 24 Oct 1601 in Prague, Bohemia (now Czech Republic) Jorgen Brahe and his wife Inger Oxe had no children of their own, and they acted as foster parents to Tycho until Jorgen's death. Jorgen Brahe was a leading Danish noble while Inger Oxe was the sister of Peder Oxe who was a member of the Rigsraads, the governing council consisting of 20 advisors to the King. In 1559 Tycho began his studies at the University of Copenhagen. There, following the wishes of his uncle, he studied law but also studied a variety of other subjects and became interested in astronomy. In 1562 he set off to go to the University of Leipzig. Astronomy was not officially part of his studies, these were classical languages and culture, but he had bought his astronomy books with him together with Dürer's constellation maps. He began making observations and by August 1563. Had an argument with another Danish student and in the resulting duel Tycho had part of his nose cut off. Alchemy was a major interest for Tycho In 1571 with the help of his uncle Steen Bille, Tycho began constructing an observatory in Herrevad Abbey. They also built an alchemy laboratory there. Tycho Brahe On 11 November 1572, he emerged into the dark of the early evening, after a long stint of alchemical experimentation, and his first glance at the sky showed him an extra star in the constellation of Cassiopeia, almost directly overhead.
    [Show full text]