Nicolaus Copernicus Essay, Research Paper
Nicolaus Copernicus
His Life:
Throughout history people have always looked up at the sky and wondered
about the universe. Some just wonder while others attempt to solve this mystery.
One of the people who had endeavored to solve it was Nicolaus Copernicus.
Copernicus was born in the present day town of Torun, Poland in
February of 1473. While still a young boy, Copernicus was put in custody of his
uncle when his father died. His uncle made sure that his nephew got the best
education they could obtain. This is how Copernicus was able to enter the
University of Krakow, which was well known for its mathematics, and astronomy
programs. After finishing in Krakow, he was inspired to further his education by
going to the University of Bologna in Italy. While there, he roomed with
Domenico Maria de Novara, the mathematics professor. In 1500, Copernicus
lectured in Rome and in the next year, obtained permission to study medicine at
Padua. Before returning to Poland, he received a doctorate in canon law from the
University of Ferrara.
Copernicus lived with his uncle in his bishopric palace. While he stayed
there he published his first book which was a translation of letters written by
the 7th century writer, Theophylactus of Simocatta. After that he wrote an
astronomical discourse that laid the foundation of his heliocentric theory; the
theory that the sun is the center of our solar system. However, it was 400 years
before it was published.
After leaving his uncle, he wrote a treatise on money, and began the
work for which he is most famous, On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres,
which took him almost 15 years to write. It is ironic that what he devoted a
good part of his life would not be published until he was on his deathbed.
His Theory:
To understand the contribution Copernicus made to the astrological
community, you first need to understand the theory that had been accepted at the
time of Copernicus.
The question of the arrangement of the planets arose about 4000 BC. At
this time the Mesopotamians believed that the earth was at the center of the
universe and that other heavenly bodies moved around the earth. This belief was
synonymously know as geocentric. They believed this, but they had no scientific
proof to support it.
It was not until the 2nd century that the famous astronomer, Ptolemy,
gave an explanation for the movement of the stars across the sky, that the
geocentric theory began to become creditable.
That was the theory that existed at the time of Copernicus. Copernicus
was not the first one to come up with the idea of a sun-centered (heliocentric)
universe. Not too long after Ptolemy theorized about the movement of the stars
there was a man by the name of Aristarchus of Samos. He was the first one to
propose the idea of a sun-centered universe.
The stipulations of Copernicus?s theory are: ? The earth rotates on its
axis daily and rotates around the sun yearly ? The other planets circle the
earth ? As the earth rotates it wobbles like a top ? The stars are stationary ?
The greater the radius of a planet?s orbit, the more time it takes to make one
complete circuit around the sun All these concepts seem totally logical to us,
however most 16th century readers were not ready to accept that the earth
rotated around the sun. It may seem weird but the calculations that Copernicus
made were not much more accurate than his predecessors, however most of his
theory was accepted, while the radical ones were omitted.
The one concept that was not liked was that the earth moved around the
sun. To deal with this dilemma, Tycho Brahe met Copernicus and Ptolemy halfway
by making the earth a stationary object while the planets orbited the sun in the
center.
The rotating earth idea was not revived until the English philosopher
Isaac Newton started explaining celestial mechanics.