Astronomers During The Enlightenment

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a German astronomer who believed in the heliocentric theory. Kepler is a clear example of the narrow line that separated science and religion. Nonetheless, his ideas would show that things could be solved through reason alone. He believed that the harmony of the human soul could be found through numerical relationships that existed between planets. He found that the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn all revolved at different times. For example, the earth revolved around the sun in a year while Saturn revolved around the sun in fifty years. From this, Kepler found a mathematical ratio, nine to the two-thirds power, to explain this phenomenon. This was revolutionary to humanity’s place in the universe. People were shocked that the universe could be explained by math alone rather than religion. This went strongly

Among these people were Copernicus who believed the sun was at the center of the world and the earth, stars and planets revolved around it. Danish astronomer Brahe helped contribute to this idea by contributing a large mass of data about the universe that he was able to discover. His student Kepler kept his ideas going, as he formulated many laws of planetary motion. He said the orbits around the sun were elliptical, planets don’t move in a uniform speed and the time a planet completes its orbit is related to its distance from the sun. Meanwhile, Florentine Galileo decided to use experiments to find out what happened and not what should happen, and discovered that a uniform force makes a uniform acceleration as well as inertia laws, that an object will be in motion forever unless stopped by another force.

There are three laws of motion. Nancy Hall states that Isaac Newton worked in many areas of mathematics and physics. In 1666, when he was 23 years old, he developed the theories of gravitation (2015). Otherwise known as Newton’s first, second, and third Laws of Motion. In agreement with HyperPhysics, “Newton's First Law states that an object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force” (HyperPhysics). Newton’s first law can also be recognized as the Law of Inertia. Essentially, what Newton's First Law is stating that objects behave predictably. For instance, a chair is not going to move unless a force is acted upon

Isaac Newton is considered one of the most important philosophies (scientist) in history. One of the biggest accomplishments the newton created was discovering the theory of gravity. Defined in the Principia, his theory about gravity helped to explain the movements of the planets and the Sun. This theory is known today as Newton's law of universal gravitation. Also Newton's created the laws of motion were three fundamental laws of physics that laid the foundation for classical

Enlightenment was a period or movement that expressed many different thoughts in science, government, philosophy. It was a time period where philosopher would pretty much question everything. Many different things appeared during this time period such as different types of architecture. Science had many great discoveries. Many by the Great Isaac Newton who discovered gravity. Government was also a big topic that was discussed. Such

Isaac Newton is an english physicist and mathematician from the United Kingdom. He is most famous for his law of gravitation. Newton played an important role in the evolution of science in the 1700’s, and is why he is considered one of the greatest minds in the 1700’s. He made discoveries in optics, motion, and mathematics. Newton also published a book (Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica), which has been called the single most influential book in all of physics

Johannes Kepler was a man who made a surplus of achievements and discovery. What he is most known for is discovering that planets don’t go in a circular motion around the

The Enlightenment happened during the 1700s when Europeans scientist and philosophers begin to question about everything and began to understand the world based on reason and at this time stood out several people like Galileo Galilei, Nicholas Copernicus, Issac Newton, Adam Smith and many others. They made great discoveries that changed the world and the form of government.

Nicholas Copernicus was the first to question the universal truths and teachings of the church. He devised a theory that the earth along with the other planets revolved around the sun. This theory disagreed with Aristotle and the old teachings that the universe revolved around the earth, and that man was the center of the universe.

Johannes Kepler was born December 27, 1571, Weil der Stadt, Germany. He was a German mathematician, astrologer,and astronomer. He attended Tübinger Stift a university in Germany from 1587-1591 and would be a teacher of astronomy at the same university. He married Barbara Müller and had 5 kids 2 of those kids died as infants he would get a divorce and remarry in 1613. He would die November 15, 1630, Regensburg, Germany he would leave a large contribution to the science and math curriculum coming up with laws and theories. Kepler would also change the way the world thinks.

The enlightenment was an intellectual movement throughout the 17th and 18th centuries involving the natural and social sciences. Four ideas that emerged from the enlightenment were reason, liberty, happiness, and progress. During this movement all areas of scientific thought were challenged. The view of astronomy changed after Copernicus came up with the Heliocentric Theory (the sun was the center of the universe). Before this theory, everyone believed the earth was the center. Also, the law of gravity and three laws of motions were brought about by Newton. The enlightenment thinkers believed in human perfection and human reason. They distrusted monarchy institutions and the church. The criticized religious customs and disliked tradition. The enlightenment had a big impact on the view of the British and French development. It is one of the influences in the French and American revolutions. The enlightenment definitely impacted the view of the

Galileo’s Influence on Astronomy Galileo has made a vast influence on Astronomy and has molded it into what it is currently. Galileo Galilei was not only an astrologist, but a physicist, mathematician, and philosopher. Galileo received the name “The Father of Modern Science”, he gained it due to his his role in the scientific revolution. Galileo is the one who put together most of experiment theory and mathematics into a common framework which influenced the scientific method. It is widely agreed upon Galileo is the person who utmost shaped modern astronomy into what it is now.

Before Newton talked about gravitation the main knowledge of scientists was a elementary knowledge of optics, mechanics and astronomy.Copernicus Kepler and Galileo provided the background knowledge of the stars and planets, but Newton used their data to discover the whole gravitational system.10Newton reasoned that the planets and all other physical objects in the universe moved through mutual attraction of gravity.Newton said that every other object in the universe affected every other object through gravity.This explained why the planets move in an orderly fashion. Newton found that “the force of gravity towards the whole planet did arise from and was compounded of the forces of gravity towards all it’s parts, and towards every one part was in the inverse proportion of the squares of the distances from this part.”Newton proves all of this mathematically. This was known to be the single most important contribution to physics that ever has been made.11

The age of Enlightenment was a progression of the cultural and intellectual changes in Europe that had resulted from the scientific revolution during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The scientific revolution and the discoveries made about the natural world would ultimately challenge the way people perceived the world around them. Scientist found real answers, by questioning flawed ancient beliefs that were widely held and maintained by the church. Ultimately, these discoveries and scientific advancements would evolve and effect social, cultural, and political developments in Europe over the course of time. The scientific revolution had provided certainty about the natural world that had long been questioned. With these new

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician who lived between 1671-1630. Kepler was a Copernican and initially believed that planets should follow perfectly circular orbits (“Johan Kepler” 1). During this time period, Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the solar system was accepted. Ptolemy’s theory stated that Earth is at the center of the universe and stationary; closest to Earth is the Moon, and beyond it, expanding towards the outside, are Mercury, Venus, and the Sun in a straight line, followed by Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the “fixed stars”. The Ptolemaic system explained the numerous observed motions of the planets as having small spherical orbits called epicycles (“Astronomy” 2). Kepler is best known for introducing three