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    In his final work, Harmonices Mundi, Kepler returns to the idea that the distances of planets can be explained by nested Platonic solids, as he proposed in Mysterium Cosmographicum. However, using his new elliptical orbit models from Astronomia Nova, he finds the distances do not match the solids as well as he hoped. Instead, Kepler proposes that the speeds of planetary orbits produce celestial music, with each planet associated with a musical note. Most importantly, he states his Third Law of Planetary Motion - that the square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the Sun. This law played a key role in Newton's

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    In his final work, Harmonices Mundi, Kepler returns to the idea that the distances of planets can be explained by nested Platonic solids, as he proposed in Mysterium Cosmographicum. However, using his new elliptical orbit models from Astronomia Nova, he finds the distances do not match the solids as well as he hoped. Instead, Kepler proposes that the speeds of planetary orbits produce celestial music, with each planet associated with a musical note. Most importantly, he states his Third Law of Planetary Motion - that the square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the Sun. This law played a key role in Newton's

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    1K views3 pages

    Harmonices Mundi

    Uploaded by

    postig
    In his final work, Harmonices Mundi, Kepler returns to the idea that the distances of planets can be explained by nested Platonic solids, as he proposed in Mysterium Cosmographicum. However, using his new elliptical orbit models from Astronomia Nova, he finds the distances do not match the solids as well as he hoped. Instead, Kepler proposes that the speeds of planetary orbits produce celestial music, with each planet associated with a musical note. Most importantly, he states his Third Law of Planetary Motion - that the square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the Sun. This law played a key role in Newton's

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    Keplers Harmonices Mundi

    In one of his nal works Kepler returns to the ideas expressed in his Mysterium Cosmographicum. By this time, years after the publication of the Astronomia Nova, Kepler has completely revamped planetary astronomy with his elliptical orbits and his Law of Areas. He has made accurate determinations of the orbits of all six planets (which he presented in his textbook Epitome of Copernican Astronomy). He is now armed with better information than he had when writing the Mysterium. Unfortunately, he nds that his new distances dont agree with the Platonic solid ratios much better than the old distances did. He doesnt give up on this idea, but takes it to be only an approximate rule. The Creator was guided by the principle of the regular solids, but not ONLY by this principle. Keplers ultimate goal in his nal book,1 Kepler explains that the REAL principle underlying the Creation is musical harmony. He explains the idea of harmony as it relates to music, geometry, astrology, and nally astronomy. His main astronomical idea is that the speed of a planets motion along its orbit is related to the pitch of a musical note. The range from the planets maximum speed (when it is at perihelion) to its minimum speed (when it is at aphelion) produces a range of musical notes. Together the planets produce celestial music. The gure below shows the sets of musical notes that Kepler uses to represent the motion of each planet, so each planet has its own little motif. Its not exactly Mozart, but still Kepler thought the planetary motions represented the mathematical principles of harmony at their best (he goes through many pages of argument to explain why these harmonies are the best ones) .

    One interesting note (pardon the pun) is that Keplers main resource for his musical research was a treatise written by the Italian musician Vincenzo Galilei. Vincenzos son, Galileo, will enter our picture shortly.

    1 After Harmonices Mundi Kepler published his astronomical tables (the Rudolphine Tables) and what is essentially the rst science ction novel, known as the Somnium. He also published a second edition of the Mysterium. But the Harmoncies Mundi represents his last new astronomical treatise.

    The most historically important result in the Harmonices Mundi is what has now come to be known as Keplers Third Law of Planetary Motion. It is delivered as an o-hand remark: But it is absolutely certain and exact that the ratio which exists between the periodic times of any two planets is precisely the ratio of the 3/2th power of the mean distances. We might express this idea as an equation: T a3/2 where T is the period of a planets orbit and a is the mean distance of the planet from the Sun (actually we should use what is called the semi-major axis of the planets elliptical orbit). If we square both sides of the equation we nd: T 2 a3 . This is but one example of a harmony of the spheres out of many examples that Kepler gives. But this one is of great historical importance since it played a key role in the development of Newtons theory of gravity. Kepler didnt provide any evidence for this assertion in Harmonices Mundi, but its pretty easy to verify. The table below shows the periods of the planets (essentially as determined by Copernicus) and the lengths of the semi-major axes of their elliptical orbits (as determined by Kepler from Tychos data). Units for period are years, and units for lengths are AU. That way both T and a have the value 1 for Earth, which makes the constant in our proportionality relationship equal 1 as well. Compute T 2 and a3 for each planet and record your results in the table. Planet Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn T (years) 0.241 0.616 1.00 1.88 11.86 29.46 a (AU) 0.388 0.724 1.00 1.524 5.20 9.51 T 2 (yrs2 ) a3 (AU3 )

    1. Based on this data, would you say that Keplers Third Law holds?

    2. By the time he wrote Harmonices Mundi Kepler had rened the physics of his Astronomia Nova. In particular, he had decided that the force on a planet would be proportional to the planets volume because a planet with a larger volume could soak up more of the species motrix. He still thought the force would be inversely proportional to distance, so F V /r. He also came to a clearer understanding of mass (rather than moles) as the total quantity of matter in an object. He reasoned that the speed of an object subject to a given force should be inversely proportional to its mass. The resulting equation for the speed of a planet is: kV v= . ma Rewrite this equation in terms of the density of the planet ( = m/V ).

    3. Since the period of a planets orbit is just the distance it travels (2a, for approximately circular orbits) divided by the speed it travels, nd an equation that gives the period as a function of distance and density.

    4. Square both sides of your equation for T and record the result below.

    5. If the planets all had the same density then T 2 would be proportional to (a) a (b) a2 (c) a3 (d) a4

    6. Compare your equation for T to Keplers Third Law. What does this indicate about the density of the planets?

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