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Nicolaus Copernicus’s and his Adventures in life Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish mathematician and astronomer who got his name after his father. He was born on February 19th 1473 in Torun, Poland and died on May 24th 1543 in Frombork (Frauenburg). He changed people’s worldviews by proving Ptolemy’s theory of the universe wrong and creating a different one with mathematics and observations. Copernicus’s theory stated that the sun is in the middle of the universe while Ptolemy stated that the Earth is in the middle of the universe.
Nicolaus Copernicus was a significant individual during the Renaissance, he wrote about the universe, proposed a new theory and influenced scientific discovery. Even though some people thought that Nicolaus Copernicus had not obtained a degree, he was still well educated. He went to many universities for education like the University of Krakow and Padua. Copernicus studied Latin, mathematics, astronomy, geography and philosophy at the University of Krakow. And he studied astrology and medicine in the University of Padua. Nicolaus Copernicus later moved to Frombork (Frauenburg) and stayed there the rest of his life.
Even though Frombork was a poor position for observations, he still made astronomical ones whenever he could. He had learned Greek while he studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Bologna (Rabin, 2010). In 1509 Copernicus published a book of poetry which was properly printed; it even gave Latin translations of Greek poetry. This book proved that Copernicus learned Greek while taking other courses at the University of Bologna; this concludes that he was a very bright individual. Copernicus accomplished lots of things through his life time like his essays and his theory of the universe.
Between 1510 and 1541 he wrote an essay that has become to be known as ‘Commentariolus’. ‘Commentariolus’ was about his new cosmological idea, which was the heliocentric universe. Georg Joachim Rheticus was a mathematician that came to study with Copernicus; he had convinced him to publish ‘On the Revolutions’. So Copernicus published ‘On the Revolutions’ and held a copy of the book on his death bed. Copernicus also hand wrote a book called ‘The Little Commentary’ which he gave to a couple of friends. Nicolaus Copernicus was also seen to be the initiator of the scientific revolution aside from his essays.
He created a theory of the universe and a heliocentric model that related to size and orbit to go along with the theory (Rabin, 2010). Nicolaus Copernicus had created many essays to inform people of his ideas and theories of the universe. Copernicus had created a theory and a model of the universe; he also proved Ptolemy’s theory wrong. Copernicus proved that the Earth and other planets revolved around the sun, he also proved that the Earth rotated on its axis once a day (Levin, 2007). He created a heliocentric model of the universe that related to size and orbit (Rabin, 2010).
His theory was intended as heresy by the Roman Catholic Church and almost 100 years after his death his theory was finally accepted (Levin, 2007). He had also included 7 axioms in the book ‘The Little Commentary’, those axioms are; Firstly, there is no one centre in the universe. Secondly, the Earth’s centre is not the centre of the universe. Thirdly, the centre of the universe is near the sun. Fourthly, the distance from the Earth to the sun is imperceptible compared with the distance to the stars. Fifthly, the rotation of the Earth accounts for the apparent daily rotation of the stars.
Sixthly, the apparent annual cycle of movements of the sun is caused by the Earth revolving round it. And finally seventhly, the apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused by the motion of the Earth from which one observes (O’Connor, 2002). Those axioms are right, but before that people believed the Ptolemaic view of the universe which had stated that the Earth was in the middle of the universe and other planets revolved around the Earth. Later on Copernicus used mathematics and observations to develop a different theory of the universe and prove Ptolemy’s wrong (Levin, 2007).
His theory was obviously correct even though it is unknown why the Roman Catholic Church intended his views as heresy. Nicolaus Copernicus was a very significant individual during the Renaissance who had created a theory about the universe and was well educated. Copernicus developed a theory and built a model of the universe that related to size and orbit. He also proved that the Earth rotated on an axis once a day. He created a couple of essays and books that mostly were based on his ideas and views of the universe.
Copernicus had gone to many universities for an education based on mathematics, astrology and medical school. He had accomplished a lot in his life and changed many worldviews of the universe. Bibliography Rabin, Sheila. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Mon Aug 16, 2010 http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/copernicus/ J J O’Connor and E F Robertson. Nicolaus Copernicus. Nov. 2002. http://www-groups. dcs. st-and. ac. uk/~history/Biographies/Copernicus. html Levin, Phyllis and Teddy, Moline and Pat, Redhead. Our Worldviews. Nelson: Ontario. 2007, 69-70. (Levin 2007)