Johannes Kepler – Germany, 1571-1630
Kepler was born in the part of Europe that would become Germany. He was mainly a scientist, studying both astronomy and physics. He was the first to publish a book defending Copernicus’ theory of a sun-centered solar system. And he made the first conjectures toward the existence of gravity, relating a planet’s size to its orbital patterns. However, Kepler used math often, to defend and expand upon his ideas. He used math to discover the orbits of several planets, including Mars, and he used those orbits to write theories about circles and ellipses. And he was known to write quick theories to friends in letters, such as the mathematics of snowflakes!
Question of the Week: With what famous astrophysicist did Kepler work for a long time in Norway?