Abstract
Patterns of motion in the sky, especially among planets, played a significant role in the historical development of mechanics. The classic Greek geocentric model for the Solar System required complicated features like epicycles to explain the retrograde motion of planets. Copernicus’s heliocentric model offered a more natural explanation for retrograde motion, but was still rather complicated because it continued to rely on circular motion. Tycho amassed a remarkable catalog of planet measurements, which Kepler used to discover that planets actually follow elliptical orbits. Newton then identified the underlying physical principles that explain why planets move the way they do. Briefly reviewing this history lets us see how physical concepts and models emerged from the empirical facts.
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Notes
- 1.
The term “planet” comes from the ancient Greek term aster planetes, or “wandering star.”
- 2.
- 3.
The geocentric model had been questioned much earlier by Aristarchus (c. 300 BC), but without a fully developed alternative.
- 4.
Historical aside: In 1665–1666 Newton solved the problems of motion and gravity to his satisfaction, keeping a detailed notebook but not publishing his work. In 1684, Edmund Halley visited Newton to pose the question: If gravity has an inverse square force law, what curve will a planet follow? Newton knew the answer was an ellipse (see Sect. 3.1), but only after battling Robert Hooke for some time did he finally decide to write his famous work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.” Newton’s introduction of mathematical principles was profoundly important for the further development of physics and astrophysics. See Isaac Newton by James Gleick [2] for more about the life and work of this fascinating figure.
- 5.
See Sect. A.2 for a review.
References
O. Gingerich, The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus (Walker, New York, 2004)
J. Gleick, Isaac Newton (Vintage Books, New York, 2004)
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Keeton, C. (2014). Celestial Mechanics. In: Principles of Astrophysics. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9236-8_2
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