Kepler

=Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 in Weil der Stadt Germany. He was premature and born to a mercenary soldier and an inn keeper who was also the mayors daughter. Most of his child hood was with his grandmother because he was very sickly and was in much need of a good home. His parents could not provide this for him so his grandmother was the obvious best choice. He was lutheran and expected to become a minister by beginning his religious education at age 13. His greater intelligence was noticed before this age, by the Dukes of Wurttemburg who provided him with a scholarship to the university of Tubingen. This would be the start of his break from becoming a minister as he took under a professor named Michael Mastlin.= =In 1587 Mastlin taught Kepler of the heliocentric theory of the solar system which was first proposed by Nicholas Copernicus. (P. 4 volume 5 World Book's Biographical Encyclopedia Of Scientists) This theory proposed that the sun was the hub of the solar system. Also that all the other planets revolved around it in a perfect circular pattern. This was viewed by Everyone else at the time as a radical idea with no logic to support it. Though Kepler was persuaded by this and held this belief to be true. Kepler received his Bachelors degree in astrology and cosmology in 1588, and continued his studies to receive his masters degree in 1591.= =After Three more years of studying at the university Kepler landed a job at an austrian high school in 1594. The school was in need of a mathematics instructor. Kepler accepted in April, and found out that the high school was lutheran, this meant to him that all means of becoming a minister were long gone. After two years of teaching, and studying planetary movements Kepler had his first realization while teaching a class. He suddenly saw an orderly relationship between the six planets that were know at the time and the five Platonic solids. This means that only these five shapes could be circumscribed by a circle or sphere. later discovery of new planets ruled out this law of spacial harmony.= =Though his first revelation was incorrect it deeply influenced him to arrive at the laws of planetary motion. Kepler published his first realization, and it had caught the eye of a man named Tycho Brahe. Brahe was appointed imperial mathematician to the roman empire in 1597. He was very impressed by Kepler's theories and grasp of mathematics. He asked Kepler to become a part of his research team based in Benatky Castle near Prague. Kepler accepted in 1600 and had joined Brahe research team in spite of their differing views of the Copernican Theory.= =Within little time Brahe had died in 1601. He had requested that Kepler continue with his unfinished work in astronomical tables which he eventually did in 1627. Though after Brahe's death he was appointed imperial mathematician. He began putting in order a publication of all of Brahe's lifelong work, accomplishments, and observations. This was the most accurate recordings of Brahe's work that have ever been published before. This proved to be very useful to Kepler later in the development of his other astronomical discoveries.= =An example of one his other astronomical discoveries is while studying the planet Mars. He was investigation the refractions of light when it led him to the process of seeing with the naked eye occurs. Also during the study of mars Kepler was first shown the idea of planetary motion. he soon developed his own theories on the subject while studying mars. Kepler tried to align Brahe's theory of circular orbit of the planets with mars' orbit. this was an unsuccessful attempt at the earlier theory of Brahe's.= =After a failed attempt at aligning mars orbit with a circular pattern that Brahe and proposed Kepler set off to try other patterns. With this mindset Kepler had conceived that the planets orbits were purely elliptical. this means that each planet moves in a unique oval shape. This was true for all the planets in orbit around the sun that were discovered at the time. This followed along as Kepler's second law of planetary motion. The first Being that all the planets have an imaginary line that sweeps out the area between the sun and the center of the planet. Because all the planets moved in an elliptical pattern now it meat that the planets move faster when they are closer to the sun.= =Kepler's along with Brahe's first ideas of a uniform planetary movement had been shattered. As no planets were conceived to move in a perfect circle in orbit each planet moved through its period in a given amount of time. This means that all the planets orbit the sun in a given amount of time. Though mars saturn and jupiter did not move in any discovered uniform movement Kepler knew that there was one because e observed that their periods were differing by much. Kepler proved this by discovering a new form of planetary motion. It stated that equal areas would be crossed by the planets in a given amount of times and not orbits. Kepler had published his work in 1609, he called it Astronomia Nova (new astronomy).= =Though with his many achievements in life Kepler struggled with other matters then his studies in Prague. Being a lutheran he received much religious persecution and had been exiled many times. Though he continued his work as the imperial mathematician, the death of king Rudolph II in 1612 made a swift end to his career. His wife and one of his sons living with him in Prague were forced to move. They had settled in a city called Linz in Austria. He soon became the district mathematician for the upper states of Austria.= =Kepler had faced many other hardships in his later years. Wile living in Prague one of his sons died, along with his wife who died some years later in Linz. He remarried there for the second time in his life. Also when his mother was accused of witchcraft and being burned at the steak Kepler successfully managed to obtain her release. In 1627 Kepler published the Rudolphine Astronomical tables in Ulm Germany. This breakthrough presented the first modern tables of astronomy and remained the standard for the next one hundred years. Kepler was content with all of his publications and had eventually settled in Sagan Silesia in 1628. Kepler died of a fever in 1630 while tending to a financial matter in Bavaria. Though his astronomical advancements and influences would live on to pose an entirely new and irrefutable perception of the universe.=