Early Life of Nicolaus Copernicus

844 Words2 Pages

Many people have had their great contributions to science. Some had the wrong ideas, or their theories were wrong, or maybe they weren’t asking the right questions. Others had some facts right, and some facts wrong. Many of the great minds in science made discoveries that went against the beliefs of the many, which angered people, but their discoveries still had great influence in the science world and their ideas are still used in science today. But even some of the greatest minds of science have made mistakes. I am about to tell you about the contributions and accomplishments of Nicolaus Copernicus, who faced many of the same challenges that many great discoverers faced in earlier times. I am also going to tell you about some of the mistakes made by Nicolaus Copernicus.
Early Life of Nicolaus Copernicus:
Nicolaus Copernicus is the latin name for this famous astronomer’s real name. His real name was Mikolaj Koppernigk, but lets just stick with Nicolaus Copernicus in this essay. He born in Torun, Poland on February 19th, 1473. Copernicus was born in a wealthy family. His father was a merchant, and his mother came from a wealthy family as well. But After His Father died he lived with his uncle Lukasz Watzenrode who was a Catholic Bishop. He went to college at a college called University of Cracow. where he studied Latin, mathematics, geography, philosophy, and Astronomy, but not the type of astronomy that you would think, it wasn’t really a scientific class in the modern sense. They were mathematics courses that taught Aristotle’s and Ptolemy’s view of the universe so that students, and were also to calculate dates of holy days, and also courses for navigating the stars at sea. In his “Astronomy “ class, they also taught ...

... middle of paper ...

...d a logic that the Ptolemy system lacked. But the problem with Copernicus’ heliocentric model, was that it showed that the planets moved in circular paths at the same speed.
Conclusion:
Nicolaus Copernicus has certainly changed the world forever. He has especially changed the way not only scientists think, but the way everyone thinks or views the world or the universe. It may have taken Copernicus a long time to publish his work, but people still knew about him and his work at the end. He had brought the world closer to understanding the solar system. There were many great minds like Nicolaus Copernicus in his time that will have made contributions to science as well, and many others that will have come after, perhaps even influenced by the work of copernicus. Just like Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”.

Open Document