Johannes Kepler · Science

A Physics of the Sky

Kepler’s most daring idea was not a law but a question nobody had dared to ask: what <em>force</em> drives the planets? In trying to answer it he invented celestial physics - and laid the table for Newton.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Kepler insisted the planets are moved by a physical force from the Sun, weakening with distance, and that he made astronomy a branch of physics even though his proposed mechanism was wrong. In your own words, explain why asking what force moves the planets was as revolutionary as any of his three laws…

Leads to Isaac Newton.

epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.