Copernicus Essay

Copernicus’ Secret is a biography of an astronomer and a cleric who established that the earth was never the center of the cosmos. The author, Jack Repcheck, explores the action-packed last 12 years of Copernicus’s life that altered the track of western history. The main aim of the author is to give a precise in-depth human explanation of the events that led to the scientific revolution. He also tries to bring this scientific genius to life in a manner, which has never been achieved in the past. In addition, the author also tries to reveal some of the little known weak character traits of Copernicus at the time of his major theories.

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.

When you hear the word Copernicus, what do you think of? Are you reminded of the famous man who lived during the Renaissance of the 15th-16th Century? Do your thoughts bring you to the revolutionary theories of our universe? Or do you merely wonder what such a word’s significance could be? No matter what comes to mind when Copernicus is said, it is important to learn who Nicolaus Copernicus was, and why he was such an influential man in history. Although some may believe that other scientists have surpassed him with their ideas and inventions, I, personally, consider Copernicus to be the most influential scientific figure ever to have lived and produced during the Renaissance for the following reasons: first of all, he was an admired and well-educated man for his time, and he ventured to challenge society, the Church, and scientific knowledge itself with his heliocentric theory; secondly, he was a scientist to have lived during the Renaissance—a period in history (probably the best to have lived in if one wanted to study and create) when thousands of scholars, writers, painters, explorers and scientists were contributing to the progress of society; and finally, to express my own admiration for Copernicus’s ability to develop such genius thoughts in a time when technology was significantly less developed than it is now.

The Scientific Revolution was where Galileo made his greatest impact. This was a revolution that brought significant changes in the way people thought and believed and roughly lasted from 1540 to 1727. Most historians agree that it started with Nicholas Copernicus who theorized that the sun was in the center of the universe.This theory was called Heliocentrism and was founded by Copernicus just before he died in 1543. Historians also believe that the scientific revolution ended with Isaac Newtons universal laws and Mechanical Universe. Newton’s universal laws and Mechanical Universe were founded in 1687. Galileo was very helpful in proving that Nicholas Copernicus’ theory of heliocentrism was in fact correct. Many people believed what the bible had told them about the universe until Galileo proved that Copernicus’ theory was correct, and not what the bible had told them. He also left his work for Isaac Newton to follow.

In 1543 Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish Canon, published “On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs”. The popular view is that Copernicus discovered that the earth revolves around the sun. The notion is as old as the ancient Greeks however. This work was entrusted by Copernicus to Osiander, a staunch Protestant who though the book would most likely be condemned and, as a result, the book would be condemned. Osiander therefore wrote a preface to the book, in which heliocentrism was presented only as a theory which would account for the movements of the planets more simply than geocentrism did, one that was not meant to be a definitive description of the heavens--something Copernicus did not intend. The preface was unsigned, and everyone took it to be the author’s. That Copernicus believed the helioocentric theory to be a true description of reality went largely unnoticed. In addition to the preface, this was partly because he still made reassuring use of Ptolemy's cycles and epicycles; he also borrowed from Aristotle the notion that the planets must move in circles because that is the only perfect form of motion.

The team of Tycho Brahe and John Keppler were the next to study Copernicus’ theory. Brahe tried to disprove Copernicus’ theory and tried to prove the idea of the earth-centered universe. Although Keppler was Brahe’s assistant, he argued for Copernicus and analyzed Brahe’s data to conclude that the sun was the center of the universe. Keppler also used Brahe’s data to discover the movement of the planet Mars. This was the key to explaining all planetary motion. ii He also discovered the planets move in elliptical orbits, which also went against the beliefs of the church. Kepp...

The Scientific Revolutions and Copernicus' Book In the sixteenth and seventeenth century a Scientific Revolution swept over Europe. The start of this Scientific Revolution has been atributed to Nicolaus Copernicus and his Heliocentric Model of the Universe. Copernicus was born in Torun Poland on February 19, 1473. His parents both died when he was very young so he was sent to live with his uncle who was a high ranking official in the Church.

In 1513, Nicholas Copernicus, composed a brief theory that stated that the sun is at rest and the earth is in rotation around the sun. In 1543, just days before his death, Copernicus published this theory in On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. This theory was meant to dissolve the long lived belief in Ptolemyís theory which stated, "The earth was at the center because it was the heaviest of objects(Kagan331)." This was a common belief at that time, which supported the religious beliefs that the earth was the center of the universe and God in the heavens were surrounding the earth. Copernicusís theory was shocking, but he published such a controversial theory without sufficient evidence, it had to be considered invalid.

The first record of the movement of the planets was produced by Nicolaus Copernicus. He proposed that the earth was the center of everything, which the term is called geocentric. Kepler challenged the theory that the sun was the center of the earth and proposed that the sun was the center of everything; this term is referred to as heliocentric. Kepler’s heliocentric theory was accepted by most people and is accepted in today’s society. One of Kepler’s friends was a famous person named Galileo. Galileo is known for improving the design and the magnification of the telescope. With improvement of the telescope Galileo could describe the craters of the moon and the moons of Jupiter. Galileo also created the number for acceleration of all free falling objects as 9.8 meters per second. Galileo’s and Kepler’s theories were not approved by all people. Their theories contradicted verses in the bible, so the protestant church was extremely skeptical of both Galileo and Kepler’s

Ptolemy, was a Roman astronomer who lived about 100 years after the time of jesus created a diagram of how he thought the universe worked, geocentric. On the contrary, Nicolaus Copernicus, who lived from 1473 to 1543 relied mostly on mathematics, referring to the universe as being heliocentric. Copernicus's theory of the universe was upsetting to the church on account of his ideas being based more on mathematics rather than the church’ beliefs. Copernicus made the perspective of man's dominance in a powerful world show to be no longer