Kepler

Bryant, Walter W.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 103K words
Chapters: 11

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Kepler by Walter W. BryantAuthor: Bryant, Walter W. (Walter William),Language: English, Class: QB: Science: Astronomy, Release Date: May 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is a short biography of Kepler for general readers, belonging to the popular literature on figures in the history of science. In relatively few pages it sets out the course of Kepler's life, his astronomical work and major writings, focusing on how he advanced the study of planetary motion on the basis of Tycho's observational data, and on the process by which the three laws were discovered and the historical context of the time. As an early popular work, its narrative is clear and its thread concise, suited to establishing a basic understanding of Kepler rather than to discussing the technical details of orbital mechanics in depth. One point to note when reading: the book treats scientific content in a largely summary fashion; to understand the geometric and physical meaning behind the laws, it should be read alongside an introduction to the history of astronomy or the history of science. On the whole it is more like an entrance, helping readers place Kepler back in the context of the scientific transformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before deciding whether to go deeper into the primary texts or specialized research.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Beginner readers interested in the history of astronomy and the Scientific Revolution
English learners who need a short English biography of a scientific figure
Secondary-school science teachers looking for supplementary material for history-of-science classes
Readers who want to learn about Kepler's life first before deciding whether to go deeper into the primary texts

Not a good fit for

Readers who wish to study orbital mechanics and astronomical computation systematically
Professional researchers who need a survey of the latest research in the history of science with detailed annotations
Readers expecting a long, in-depth biography with close attention to textual criticism of primary sources
Readers who read only Chinese and do not wish to engage with English texts

Reading tips

Read a chapter of background material on the Scientific Revolution first, then move into the main text, understanding Kepler's work within the chain from Copernicus to Newton.
Keep a timeline as you read: Tycho's observations, the study of Mars, the proposal of the three laws—grasp the advance of his research in order.
Pause at statements of the laws and compare them with a basic astronomy textbook for their geometric meaning, so as not to remember only the conclusions.
The English text is not long; it can be read in two or three sessions, restating in your own words after each session the core problem of that stage.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers with no background in astronomy at all?

It can serve as an introductory work, but a little background preparation is needed. The book's account of Kepler's life and the process of discovery is fairly concise and does not develop the technical derivation of the laws. If you are entirely unfamiliar with the basic concepts of planetary motion, it is recommended that you read a few pages of an introduction to basic astronomy first; the book will then read more smoothly.

Does the book explain the three laws of planetary motion in detail?

Given the positioning of this short biography, it focuses more on Kepler's life, working environment and the course of discovery, and gives mostly summary explanations of the three laws rather than deriving them one by one. To grasp the geometric and physical meaning of the laws, one should read it alongside an astronomy textbook or a specialized work on the history of science.

Is this the original English edition, and how difficult is it to read?

The book is an English text, an earlier popular biography; the language is generally plain, but it involves historical names of people and places and astronomical terminology. Readers with university-level English reading ability can finish it with the help of a dictionary; if you only want to understand the content, you may also choose a Chinese work on the history of science as a substitute or for comparison.

After finishing, what should I read next to go deeper into Kepler?

You can turn to the chapters on the Scientific Revolution in a general history of science to understand the overall thread from Copernicus to Newton; you can also look for a guide to or selected readings from Kepler's works to encounter the lines of thought in his original writings. If you are interested in technical details, then supplement this with the section on planetary motion in a basic astronomy textbook, forming a progression from biography to primary texts.

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About the author

Bryant, Walter W. Author · British

Walter W. Bryant is a British scholar who specializes in the history of astronomy. He is not widely known in the Chinese-speaking world, and publicly available information about him is limited; only one of his works is currently held in the collection. His representative work, Kepler, centers on the life and scholarly contributions of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler and is a typical study of a figure in the history of science. Judging from the available information, his writing emphasizes the arrangement of historical sources and the unfolding of his subject's thought, placing Kepler's discoveries within the context of their time rather than merely listing astronomical achievements. This approach suits readers who wish to understand the origins of early modern astronomy while also taking its historical setting into account. Although Bryant's other activities and academic career cannot be ascertained at present, Kepler can still serve as a window into early modern science and help readers grasp Kepler's place in the transformation of astronomy.