Johannes Kepler Biography

On this day 442 years ago one of the greatest astronomically skilled mathematicians were born, his name was Johannes Kepler. He was born around one o'clock in the afternoon. His parents were Katharina Kepler, and Heinrich Kepler. He grew up in a very poor family with his father being a soldier, and his mom an herbalist, or healer. He suffered from smallpox at the age of four and his father past away when he was five. Contributions that he made to math were that he made laws of planetary motion and if he didn’t make those discoveries we wouldn’t be where we are today with our space explorations. His first law was the law of ellipses; the main law is that all planets revolve around the sun in an ellipse with the sun at one of the two foci points. Explains that planets are orbiting the sun in a path described as an ellipse. An ellipse can easily be constructed using a pencil, two tacks, a string, a sheet of paper and a piece of cardboard. Tack the sheet of paper to the cardboard using the two tacks. Then tie the string into a loop and wrap the loop around the two tacks. Take your pencil and pull the string until the pencil and two tacks make a triangle. Then begin to trace out a path with the pencil, keeping the string wrapped tightly around the tacks. The resulting shape will be an ellipse. His second law is the law of equal areas; described the speed at which the planet it orbiting the sun at. If you draw a line, from the center of the planet to the center of the sun, ever 31 days some areas will appear longer because those are the points when the planet moves fastest. But if you were to measure the square feet, or miles, or if it was a drawing, the square inches, all of the triangles' areas would measure the same. To find the speed you would divide the distance by the time and uvula, you got your speed. Now the third law is called the law of harmonies. This law compares the orbit radius and orbital periods of one planet to another. So thanks to the first two