Monday, February 05, 2007

Kepler, the Astronomer




Johannes Kepler gave the Laws of Planetary Motion to the Western world.


His basic postulates are


1) The orbit of a planet is an ellipse, with the Sun as the focus of that ellipse

2) Planets move faster at perihelion and slowest at Aphelion

3) p1^2/p2^2 = a1^3 / a2^ 3, where p = period of revolution of the planet and a its semi major axis.

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