Kepler Johann: biography, works, discoveries

The appearance of the heliocentric system of Nicolaus Copernicus is the most important component of the process that historians called the scientific revolution of the 16th-17th centuries. In the foreword to his book, where he laid out this theory, the great Pole cautiously pointed to its absurdity, suggesting that his work was only an attempt to find a way to facilitate mathematical calculations in astronomy. The merit of transforming the Copernican model of the universe into an immutable truth belongs to the great German scientist named Kepler. Johann did more than any other great contemporaries: he announced the arrival of a new type of man into the world - a scientist who actively learns nature.

Comet - the premonition of a great destiny

The future astronomer, mathematician, mechanic, optician was born on December 27, 1571 in a poor family, in the town of Weil, in the duchy of Württemberg, in the Swabian part of Germany. When he was 5 years old, the head of the family - the mercenary soldier Heinrich Kepler - went to war in Holland. Johann never saw him again. His mother, Katarina, was the daughter of an innkeeper, engaged in herbal and fortune-telling, for which she nearly paid her head later. With a small income, she did everything to get a decent education.

An interesting fact, perhaps determining the whole fate, contains the biography of Johannes Kepler at its very beginning. Catharina Kepler showed the comet six-year-old Johann, and three years later - in 1580 - the eclipse of the moon. The star that moves through the night sky, and Luna, changing shape before the eyes, made a curious impression on the inquisitive boy. Maybe then his desire to dig up to the causes of what was happening was born?

A theological scholar, a supporter of Copernicus

In his early childhood, Johann suffered a smallpox disease that weakened his eyesight. Therefore, he grew physically weak and painful. Because of this, it took him more time than peers to get a secondary education. At the same time Kepler's admission to the University of Tübingen was promoted by the city authorities, who noted the outstanding abilities that Johannes Kepler possessed. A brief biography of the scientist from 1591 to 1594 is a tense absorption of knowledge in one of the best European universities.

Kepler all his life was a deeply religious person and a convinced Protestant. Therefore, he was preparing to become a priest and entered the theological faculty. True, before that he had attended a course in mathematics and astronomy, becoming Master of Arts - that was exactly what these exact sciences were called at that time. Among his teachers was the proponent of the heliocentric system Michael Meestlin. Under the influence of his lectures, Kepler becomes a convinced preacher of this theory. Johann tried to think creatively of Copernicus' ideas, but he did not always draw correct conclusions.

The Kepler Cup

Johann's plan to become a priest was prevented by his invitation to become a teacher of mathematics at the University of Graz (1594). Although his conviction for adherence to the path of serving God was complete, Johannes Kepler's biography becomes a biography of the scientist-researcher, who stands on the platform of the doctrine that denied the Ptolemaic (geostationary) model of the world.

In Harz, he is engaged in the search for mathematical harmony in the device of the solar system and publishes the book "The Mystery of the Universe" (1596). The "Kepler Cup" became a visual expression of the ideas proclaimed by the scientist in this book. It was a three - dimensional model of the solar system, in which the luminary is in the Copernican way in the center, but the orbits of the planets revolving around are given by Kepler with properties of Platonic bodies - cubes, balls and regular polyhedra. Knowingly mathematics was considered at that time as an art - this model was very beautiful, although absolutely wrong.

A timely invitation made

Kepler sends his book to the most advanced scientists in Europe, including Galileo and the Dane Tycho Brahe, who held the post of court astronomer in Prague. Denying Kepler's proposed harmony of orbital forms, both scientists highly appreciate the work of the young mathematician and astronomer. True, from different positions. Galileo approved the heliocentric approach, and Brahe liked the courage and originality of his thinking. The Dane invited Kepler to Prague.

Johann's departure for Prague was facilitated by several circumstances. Among them - the difficult material and moral position of Kepler (he married, but the young wife fell ill with epilepsy and soon died) and the started persecution of Protestants by the Catholic Church, which was declared an apostate and Johannes Kepler. A brief biography of the scientist during the last period of his stay in Harz is full of threats and pressure on him as a supporter of heretical theories.

In 1600, Kepler arrives in Prague, where the most fruitful stage of his life begins.

Kepler in Prague. Heritage

Shortly after the start of the joint work, Brahe unexpectedly died, leaving Kepler archives of his astronomical observations and the place of the court astronomer and astrologer. The Decade, held by Kepler in Prague, underlies all his major scientific achievements, made in astronomy, physics, and mathematics.

In astronomy Kepler put the final order with the idea of the motion of the planets of the solar system. To understand what discovery belongs to Johannes Kepler, his contemporaries could from the main book of the scientist - "New astronomy" (1609). In it and in the final work Harmony of the World (1618), three laws of celestial kinematics were formulated. The first spoke about the shape of the orbit of planets in the form of an ellipse with the Sun in one of the focuses, the second and third described the speed of the planet's motion along the orbit and ways of measuring it. In addition, Kepler described a supernova, made up precise astronomical tables that served to orient stars and seamen to astronomers.

Mathematics was the main tool that Kepler used in his work. Johann in his book "The New Stereometry of Wine Barrels" (1615) shows methods of finding volume for bodies of revolution, lays the foundations of the matanalysis and integral calculus. Among Kepler's mathematical finds is the table of logarithms, new concepts - "arithmetic mean" and "infinitely remote point".

Kepler introduced the concept of "inertia" into scientific usage, referring to the existence in nature of the desire of related bodies to unite, came close to the discovery of the law of universal gravitation. For the first time he explained the cause of the sea tides and the influence of the moon, described the causes of myopia, and developed a more perfect telescope.

Last years. Memory

In 1615 Kepler was forced to become the lawyer of his mother, accused of witchcraft. She was threatened with burning at the stake, but Johann managed to achieve her release.

In recent years, Kepler was forced to search for a reliable source to support his family, and on a trip to the emperor who owed him a salary, he died in the city of Riensburg in 1630.

The name of Kepler today is among the greatest minds whose ideas lie at the basis of both current scientific and technical achievements. His name is the name of an asteroid, a crater on the moon, a space truck and an orbiting space observatory, with the help of which a new planet is discovered, similar in conditions to the Earth and also named after Kepler.