The laws of planetary motion by Johannes Kepler changed the way we today view the universe. Without these laws many of todays laws and theories about our world and others would not exist. Although back in 1600 when these laws were published many didn’t believe them to be true, a few who read his works paved the way for today’s astronomers. Johannes Kepler was born December 27, 1571 in Weil der Stadt, a small town in northern Germany. As Kepler grew up he did not believe in a particular religion and left Germany to teach at Graz in Austria. This is where Kepler meets his mentor Tycho Brahe. Brahe was the first to “map” the universe, as he stared at the stars and analyzed their positions. Kepler’s mentor Tycho Brahe studied the planets and wrote his observations down. Kepler was there to translate these observations into formulas that made sense. While Brahe didn’t want Kepler to surpass himself as a scientist, he did not have enough knowledge to do it himself, so he let Kepler use some of his findings. By using these positions, specifically of Mars, Kepler would establish his laws …show more content…
While again it does the relationship between orbital periods of planets and their distance from the sun, its mathematical formula is a bit more complex. The best explanation of Kepler’s mathematical basis is in a three to two ratio. The orbital period in earth years must first be calculated and then cubed. The next calculation is of the semi major axis, or the average distance of that planet from the sun in astronomical units. But his law also took into account the mass of the planet and a variation of pie, which would end up equaling one anyway. This formula ended up being applied to all the planets to determine their motion around the Sun. While the formula could also be used on moons and other beings around planets, it becomes more complex than Kepler was able to explain at the time. (Guillemin,