Abstract
From the earliest times humankind has been drawn to the unity of the creation. The ancients understood the large-scale bodies of the heavens and the smallest bits of elemental matter as intimately related parts of a cosmic whole. They sought to explain that unity with the geometrical and religious concepts of their era.
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References
Kepler wrote, “Divine Providence granted us such a diligent observer in Tycho Brahe that his observations convicted this Ptolemaic calculation of an error of 8′; it is only right that we should accept God’s gift with a grateful mind.… Because these 8′ could not be ignored, they alone have led to a total reformation of astronomy.” [Johannes Kepler Gesammelte III, 178, Munich (1937-)]
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© 2004 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
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(2004). The Heavens and the Elements. In: The Shaggy Steed of Physics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-21806-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-21806-9_2
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-40307-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-21806-9
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