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Kepler lore
May. 16th, 2024 07:16 pmYet another "this is context for a book review but is freestanding enough to be its own post."
Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler were astronomers in the 15-1600s, during the post-Copernicus era as different people were trying to figure out how the planets moved. Brahe lived earlier and took lots of excellently detailed observations. He is also infamous for a prosthetic nose and an unpleasant cause of death. He had cousins named, more or less, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who may have been Shakespeare's inspiration. Kepler was his assistant later in his career. After that, Kepler built on those notes to conceptualize some broader, theoretical laws of motion, like orbits are ellipses and planets sweep out equal areas in equal times.
I took history of science for my history class in college and read some more about the scientific revolution era. Kepler was a Lutheranpreacher's kid [eta: this part was wrong] who had dreamy, fanciful ideas about how the music of the spheres is all sort of some mathematical harmony and also had some sharp words for people who take the Bible too literally, to the impediment of scientific understanding. I'm a Lutheran preacher's kid who loves math and has little time for superficial conflict [between science and religion] thesis stuff. Obviously, I loved reading about Kepler. This is a Kepler appreciation blog.
Even non-astronomers have opinions about the timing of "Brahe worked for years and years taking these painstaking records, and then after he died, Kepler came along and got all the glory of the theoretical synthesis." And there are two main reactions:
-Sarah Williams, who wrote a famous poem about astronomy and how people build on each others' research, featuring some widely-quoted lines in the fanfic world, which prompts other people to go "we should use 'Reach Me Down My Tycho Brahe' as a title, now that would be more original" (yes, been there, done that)
-my dad, who looks at the timing and says "oh how conveeeeeenient. A 'bladder issue.' Kepler definitely did it."
We had the opportunity to visit Prague a couple years ago and I mentioned that I wanted to see Kepler and/or Brahe sites/houses/tributes if possible, and that became our in-joke. Johannes Kepler: astronomer, open-minded Lutheran, murderer.
Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler were astronomers in the 15-1600s, during the post-Copernicus era as different people were trying to figure out how the planets moved. Brahe lived earlier and took lots of excellently detailed observations. He is also infamous for a prosthetic nose and an unpleasant cause of death. He had cousins named, more or less, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who may have been Shakespeare's inspiration. Kepler was his assistant later in his career. After that, Kepler built on those notes to conceptualize some broader, theoretical laws of motion, like orbits are ellipses and planets sweep out equal areas in equal times.
I took history of science for my history class in college and read some more about the scientific revolution era. Kepler was a Lutheran
Even non-astronomers have opinions about the timing of "Brahe worked for years and years taking these painstaking records, and then after he died, Kepler came along and got all the glory of the theoretical synthesis." And there are two main reactions:
-Sarah Williams, who wrote a famous poem about astronomy and how people build on each others' research, featuring some widely-quoted lines in the fanfic world, which prompts other people to go "we should use 'Reach Me Down My Tycho Brahe' as a title, now that would be more original" (yes, been there, done that)
-my dad, who looks at the timing and says "oh how conveeeeeenient. A 'bladder issue.' Kepler definitely did it."
We had the opportunity to visit Prague a couple years ago and I mentioned that I wanted to see Kepler and/or Brahe sites/houses/tributes if possible, and that became our in-joke. Johannes Kepler: astronomer, open-minded Lutheran, murderer.
