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What did Pythagoras do that you do today?
Mathematics and science.
Science and math month theme?
Math and Science: Exploring the Today and Beyond
How did Galileo's observations of Jupiter's moons support Copernicus theory?
The discovery did not support Copernicus's theory directly but it raised doubts about the ancient theory of Ptolemy that said that all objects in the sky are in orbit round the Earth. Galileo was an aggressive supporter of Copernicus's theory but eventually it was Kepler's theory that became accepted and is still used today. Both Copernicus and Kepler placed the Sun at the centre but Kepler's elliptical orbits are supported by the later theory of dynamics.
What was the controversial idea of Nicklaus Copernicus?
Copernicus devised a new model of the planets' movements among the stars. To do this he made modifications to the ancient Ptolemaic system. Copernicus considered that the ancient model was geometrically complicated and that it could be simplified very much by placing the Sun at the centre, instead of the Earth. This was controversial because the Ptolemaic model had been around for well over 1000 years and had been incorporated into the scriptures, and it was believed the Earth is at the centre. Not only was it believed but it was also religious dogma. In the end Kepler came up with a new model of elliptical orbits that was shown to be right many years later after the law of gravity and the laws of motion had been discovered. Kepler's theory is the one that is still in use today. Kepler's theory retained Copernicus's idea of placing the Sun at the centre, so Copernicus was proved right in the end, although during Copernicus's lifetime he had no way of knowing it.
What is the main difference between keplers system and the Copernicus system?
Copernicus's system used circles and epicycles, just like the ancient Ptolemaic system, with the difference that by placing the Sun at the centre Copernicus could simplify the complicated paths taken by the planets through space. Kepler had the advantage of new accurate observations made by Tycho Brahe at the end of the 16th century, and these enabled Kepler to realise that by using elliptical orbits for the planets, the modelled positions could be fitted more closely with the measured positions. Kepler retained the idea of having the Sun at the centre and it is the model used today with slight modifications from Einstein's theory of relativity.
