Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was born in Weil der Stadt, Wurttember, Holy Roman Empire, which is now known as Germany, on December 27, 1571. He lived there with his parents until he was five years old, he then moved to Leonburg to live with his grandparents. Kepler’s education began at the nearby Latin school, in the year 1577. He attended this school until 1584 when he entered the Protestant seminary, where he was to be ordained. Kepler then decided to attend the Protestant University of Tubingen, in 1589, where he studied Mathematics, Hebrew and Greek. He became very fond of math and developed a passion for it. He passed the M.A. examination and continued to study as a graduate student. In 1594 Kepler accepted a job as a mathematical professor at the Protestant Seminary in Graz and worked there for many years. In 1600, when Protestants were forced to turn Catholic, Kepler left the Seminary.

Kepler was an incredible mathematician who developed many laws and ideas about math and related topics. He was the first to explain planetary motion. He was also the first person to explain how the telescope works. He formed the basis of integral calculus. He suggested the idea that the sun rotates on its axis. He was the first to derive logarithms, purely based on mathematics. Kepler was known mainly for creating the three laws of planetary motion. He invented a method to find the volume of solids, which also contributed to the development of calculus. The above are merely some of his contributions to math and related topics.

During his lifetime Kepler published many books. He wrote a book called Mysteries of the Cosmos in 1596, which explained why there were huge spaces between planets. Supplements of Witelo, on the optical part of astronomy, published in 1604, was another one of his books. It correctly explained how the human eye works. Kepler wrote another book called The Harmony of the World, in 1599, which contained Kepler’s third law of planetary motion. In 1611, he wrote about the theory of the telescope in a book called Dioptrice. While Kepler lived in Linz he published a book about the year of Jesus’ birth. The book was published in 1614 and was called Concerning the True Year in which the Son of God assumed a Human Mature in the Uterus of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Between 1617 and 1621 he published Epitome of Copernican Astronomy, which was a book about heliocentric astronomy. Besides the above publications Kepler has written many other documentation’s.

Sadly Johannes Kepler died on November 15, 1630, in Regensburg, due to a short illness. He lived to the age of 59, which was considered an old age at the time. He was an excellent mathematician and contributed greatly to the way we think about math and astronomy today.

http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/People/Kepler.html

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