François Viète's method for calculating the eccentricity in a bisected model and its possible application to Kepler's vicarious hypothesis

DOI10.1016/J.HM.2021.09.002MaRDI QIDQ2118259zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Christián C. Carman

Publication date 22 March 2022

Published in Historia Mathematica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hm.2021.09.002

zbMATH Keywords

bisected modelseccentricityplanetary modelsthree-observation problemvicarious hypothesis

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 15th and 16th centuries, Renaissance (01A40) History of astronomy and astrophysics (85-03)

Review text

In this paper, the author analyzes Viète's so-called method for bisected models which he investigated in his unpublished work \textit{Ad harmonicon coeleste}, and he shows how this method extends to non-bisected models, giving a solution to a problem that Kepler investigated, related to the computation of the eccentricities of his vacarious hypothesis (a planetary hypothesis that he developed mainly for the description of the motion of the planet Mars). At the same time, the author presents a solution that Viète gave in his \textit{Apollonius Gallus seu exsuscitata Apollonii Pergaei} to a problem that Ptolemy had solved in the \textit{Almagest}, namely, given the arcs between three points on a circle and the angles between them seen from a point different from the center, to find the ratio between the radius of the circle and the distance between the center of the circle and the given point. The author explains the relations between these two mathematical problems and between these problems and questions on astronomy such as a model for the outer planets that Viète also presented in his \textit{Ad harmonicon} and Copernicus' two-epicycle model for the superior planets. From the purely historical point of view, a missing opportunity for a collaboration between Kepler and Viète is conjectured. The paper is interesting, well written and very informative.

Recommendations

• Kepler's hypothesis vicaria
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3995614
• Kepler's derivation of the bisection of the Earth's orbit in \textit{Astronomia nova}
• Algebraic geometrical properties of Kepler's vicarious ovum
• A note on `Kepler's equation'

Cites work

• A survey of the Almagest. Edited by Alexander Jones, with annotation and a new commentary
• François Viète's revolution in algebra
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3882371 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3904530 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1273305 (Why is no real title available?)

Cited in

(4)

• Kepler's hypothesis vicaria
• How Euler found the eccentricity of planetary orbits
• Kepler's derivation of the bisection of the Earth's orbit in \textit{Astronomia nova}
• Algebraic geometrical properties of Kepler's vicarious ovum

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