Johannes Kepler (nonfiction)

Johannes Kepler.

Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630) was a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his laws of planetary motion, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. These works also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation.

Kepler was a mathematics teacher at a seminary school in Graz, Austria, where he became an associate of Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg. Later he became an assistant to the astronomer Tycho Brahe, and eventually he was the imperial mathematician to Emperor Rudolf II and his two successors Matthias and Ferdinand II. He was also a mathematics teacher in Linz, Austria, and an adviser to General Wallenstein. Additionally, he did fundamental work in the field of optics, invented an improved version of the refracting telescope (the Keplerian telescope), and was mentioned in the telescopic discoveries of his contemporary Galileo Galilei.

On October 13, 1597, Kepler replied to Galileo's letter of 4 August, 1597, urging him to be bold and proceed openly in his advocacy of Copernicanism.

On October 17, 1604, Kepler observed a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus, now known as Kepler's supernova.

Johannes Kepler wrote to John Napier on July 28, 1619, expressing his enthusiasm for Napier's invention of logarithms.

Kepler lived in an era when there was no clear distinction between astronomy and astrology, but there was a strong division between astronomy (a branch of mathematics within the liberal arts) and physics (a branch of natural philosophy). Kepler also incorporated religious arguments and reasoning into his work, motivated by the religious conviction and belief that God had created the world according to an intelligible plan that is accessible through the natural light of reason.

Kepler described his new astronomy as "celestial physics", as "an excursion into Aristotle's Metaphysics", and as "a supplement to Aristotle's On the Heavens", transforming the ancient tradition of physical cosmology by treating astronomy as part of a universal mathematical physics.

Fiction cross-reference

• Crimes against astronomical constants
• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles
• In the Shadow of Mercury Retrograde is an alleged lost play by astronomer and dramaturge Johannes Kepler.
• Johannes Kepler - astronomer and dramaturge
• Mathematician
• Mathematics

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Tycho Brahe (nonfiction)
• Girard Desargues (nonfiction)
• Galileo Galilei (nonfiction)
• Paul Guldin (nonfiction)
• Kepler's Supernova (nonfiction)
• Mathematician (nonfiction)
• Mathematics (nonfiction)
• John Napier (nonfiction)
• Niccolò Zucchi (nonfiction)

External links

• Johannes Kepler @ Wikipedia