Nicolaus+Copernicus

=Nicolaus Copernicus=

Copernicus lived from the year 1473 to 1543. He was a Polish Astronomer who revolutionised physics with his theory of planetary movement. With his discovery of that theory, he was later known as the father of modern astronomy.



Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) was a famous German novelist, dramatist, poet, humanist, scientist, philosopher, and for ten years Chief Minister of State at Weimar Republic. He once quoted this about Nicolaus Copernicus.

//"Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely become known as round and complete in itself when it was asked to waive the tremendous privilege of being the center of the universe. Never, perhaps, was a greater demand made on mankind — for by this admission so many things vanished in mist and smoke! What became of our Eden, our world of innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony of the senses; the conviction of a poetic — religious faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish to let all this go and offered every possible resistance to a doctrine which in its converts authorized and demanded a freedom of view and greatness of thought so far unknown, indeed not even dreamed of." //

This shows how modern people of today still appreciates his great achievements towards the field of physics and astronomy.



Before Copernicus' discoveries, it was widely believed that the Earth was in the center of the universe and that all other planets revolved around it. This is known as the "Geocentric Theory". However, he was the one who proved that the Sun was stationary in the center of the universe, and that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

He created a concept of a universe in which the distances of the planets from the Sun were related to the size of their orbits around the Sun. At that time, his discoveries led to much controversies, and Copernicus came to be known as the **Initiator of the Scientific Revolution**. Galileo Galilei later helped to prove his theory right. This theory later on came known as the "Heliocentric Theory".

This video shows the difference between the Geocentric Theory and the Heliocentric Theory in respective order of mention. media type="youtube" key="VyQ8Tb85HrU?fs=1" height="385" width="480"