Researched
Falling Bodies & Planet Orbits
Kepler finds the laws of planetary orbits (1609) and Galileo the law of falling bodies (1638): physics becomes a measuring science.
Open in the interactive tree →Copernicus (1543) placed the Sun at the center. Kepler fitted Tycho Brahe's precise observations to ellipses and derived three laws. Galileo used experiments and the telescope (moons of Jupiter, 1610), showing that falling bodies accelerate uniformly and that motion needs no constant push. Both prepared the ground for Newton.
Prerequisites
- Geometry (Euclid)~300 BC
- Archimedes: Lever & Buoyancy~250 BC
- Heliocentric world view1543Kepler's laws extended Copernicus' Sun-centred system
- Scientific Method~1600-1620
- The telescope1608
Unlocks
- Barometer1643
- Vacuum Pumps & Gas Laws1643-1662
- Newtonian Mechanics1687