What Google Didn't Tell You About Nick Copernicus

Google front page: February 19, 2013 - Copernicus' 540th Birthday

I wanted to do a birthday post this month, one about Lincoln (and my awesome mom!) or one about Washington (who occupies my other part-time life). But those days came and went, and Nicolaus Copernicus was a serendipitous choice for a history of science nerdling.

A quick one though, on the things that Google didn't tell you about Copernicus when you clicked on his spiraling heliocentric model.

1) Copernicus wasn't the first guy to come up with a heliocentric model. Historians point to Aristarchus of Samos for that. That doesn't mean Copernicus wasn't awesome for bringing the heliocentric sexy back.

2) Copernicus' model was a MODEL, not a theory or a system. He liked it, because the math made more sense. Sometimes Kepler and Galileo are considered the first true Copernicans, believing that the model, was in the fact what the cosmos looked like -- something to which Copernicus doesn't actually admit (Hey! It was a dangerous idea! It went against the Church!) In fact, he delayed publication of his book until on his deathbed, supposedly dying with the newly printed De revolutionibus orbium coelestium having just reached his hands. (Historians still argue about whether he believed his MODEL was a SYSTEM, whether he delayed publication for mathematical or philosophical decisions, or if it was because of fear of religious backlash).

3) Copernicus' neat little circles shown here didn't fully explain all of the data. It needed to be combined with Kepler's elliptical paths for the math to come out nicely.

4). The Ptolemaic Model (or geocentric model) still mathematically predicts where the heavenly bodies will be, and so can be (and still is) used for navigational purposes.

Copernicus died in 1543. Galileo wouldn't be born for another twenty-one years and Kepler not for another twenty-eight. What Google did tell you was that Copernicus was a starting point, an amazing thinker, who influenced the minds of future generations. He is man that we put on a deserved pedestal as an outside-the-box thinker. Google did tell you that Copernicus should be celebrated. And I whole heartedly agree.