[UA] Kepler

[holycrow at mindspring.com]

>I believe that it *was* Johannes Kepler (hope I speled that rite). As >I recall, he was a bit upset about the whole thing - he would have >preferred perfect circles. Gotta respect the man for dealing with >evidence that he didn't like rationally rather than ignoring or >explaining it away. 

The class was a while back, and I've got a lousy memory anyhow, but I believe Kepler was the one who hoped to find that the distances between the orbits of the planets would prove to be proportionate to the exterior and interior radial spheres formed by Platonic solids.  (Platonic solids are forms created from equilateral planes made into solids without gaps.  To you and me, they're most familiar as the d4, d6, d8, d12 and d20.  D10 doesn't count because its faces are not equilateral.)  He thought that this would pretty much prove that there was a divine architect whose plan was iteratively reflected on all levels of creation.  There was also something in there about trying to find the music of the spheres, but I can't remember how that worked... but it was all his mystic-christian stuff that left him open to the notion of elliptical orbits.  

-G.

Plus, didn't he have a metal nose?

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua