preview

Copernicus Research Paper

Decent Essays

The most important influences of Copernicus were in the field of astronomy. Copernicus believed that the sun was at the center of the universe. In Nicolaus Copernicus by Rabin, “The Ptolemaic system placed the Earth at the center of the universe. Copernicus concluded that Earth was the center of gravity and the lunar sphere, there was seven planets in the solar system in which all planets orbited the sun.” By the end of the 16th century, Galileo had taken the crucial step of applying mathematical models to the subject matter of physics. Galileo believed in Copernicus theory of the solar system. “Galileo also designed the calculating compass and telescope of 20 times magnification. He was considered a skilled instrument maker, the telescopes …show more content…

It explained his discoveries of four of Jupiter’s moons, the coarseness of the Moon’s surface, and differences between the appearances of planets and fixed stars. Galileo believed that tides were caused by the splashing of water in the seas at a point on Earth’s surface, which speeded up at certain times of day due to rotation. This theory outlines the laws of physics, which states that an object moving at a constant speed in a straight line will remain at that same speed. Sobel believed that Galileo “tested this theory by measuring the swing of pendulums until he could describe their periods by a mathematical law, and he rolled bronze balls down inclined planes a thousand ways to derive the rate of acceleration in free fall.” Some of Galileo’s discoveries in physics were rejected; he still published books to discuss his personal hypotheses. Johannes Kepler established the Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. These laws include that the orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the Sun, and that the square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of an axis of its orbit. Kepler was the first to introduce the field of physics and the field of

Get Access