scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1943952
There is mainly given a comparison between Eudoxus and Kepler. At first the achievements before Eudoxus are analyzed, which means the results, known to the Pythagoreans: 1. the Earth is of a spherical shape, 2. the stars move uniformly as a whole around the Earth within one day from east to west, 3. the movement of the Sun consists of two movements, of one daily movement according to the stars and of another one around the poles of the ecliptic which takes place from west to east. The same is true for all planets which move in an individually changed way and obey individual laws. This system includes the idea that there is a universal hypothesis, according to which all celestial movements are composed, i.e., a superposition of two homocentric uniform movements. This was the first astronomical theory of the Greek. It was followed by the theory of epicycles and the theory of excenters, the equivalence of these two systems is due to Appollonius. Kepler's laws were the first where the uniformity of the movement was abandoned, which means he also abandoned the idea of circular movements. The superiority of heliocentrism was fully recognised. As a consequence it was accepted that the universe was much larger; on the other side Kepler came much closer to the Eudoxian ideal, namely the structural simplicity. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1005.00011].
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