Abstract
Johannes Kepler published his first two laws of planetary motion in 1609 and his third law ten years later. With them he revolutionized astronomy and gave the solar system its modern shape. All before him, including his great contemporary Galileo, sought to portray all motion as circular in form. Even Copernicus and Galileo, who held that the Earth does actually move in rotation about its axis and in revolution about the Sun, championed the circularity of orbits as a form of the most perfect shape.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Upgren, A. (1998). Ellipse. In: Night Has a Thousand Eyes. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6072-6_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6072-6_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-306-45790-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6072-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive