Johannes Kepler
1571 – 1630 · Germany · Astronomy, Mathematics
Three laws of planetary motion; every satellite orbit obeys them.
Index entry
Johannes Kepler is currently a short index entry. The research desk can draft the full profile — achievements, works, living legacy and what is documented about the family line.
Expand this profileContinuity of ideas
Who shaped Johannes Kepler, and who they shaped
Inherited from2
- Copernicus
1473 – 1543 · Astronomy, Mathematics
Kepler set out to save Copernicus and ended by replacing circles with ellipses.
- Ibn al-Haytham
965 – 1040 · Physics, Mathematics
Kepler's optics begins from the Book of Optics' intromission theory of vision.
Passed the work to1
- Isaac Newton
1643 – 1727 · Physics, Mathematics
The three planetary laws are what universal gravitation was built to explain.
Sources and references
Numbered markers in the text above point to the entries below. Each links to a primary document, archival collection or scholarly reference where the claim about Johannes Kepler can be checked.
- 1.Primary texts and first editions by or about Johannes Kepler
Internet Archive · Primary source
- 2.Catalogued holdings and archival finding aids for Johannes Kepler
WorldCat (OCLC) · Archive
Nearby in the annals
Zhang Heng
78 – 139Built the first seismoscope and mapped 2,500 stars.
Ptolemy
100 – 170The Almagest ruled astronomy for 1,400 years; his Geography guided Columbus.
Al-Biruni
973 – 1048Measured Earth's radius to within 1% and wrote the first comparative anthropology of India.