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five planets in visual proximity


MoseySusan

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405px-Tycho_Brahe.JPG

When he was 20, (Tycho) Brahe lost part of his nose in a sword duel with his third cousin, Manderup Parsberg. Manderup’s blade cut away most of the nasal bridge, leaving the nasal cavity and septum exposed.

To hide his deformity, he constructed a prosthetic device made of wax, but it was unsatisfactory. Thus, he made a mold around the wax nose and fabricated a brass prosthesis. An artist matched the color of his skin. The prosthesis was held in place with glue. 

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10 hours ago, donkpow said:

405px-Tycho_Brahe.JPG

When he was 20, (Tycho) Brahe lost part of his nose in a sword duel with his third cousin, Manderup Parsberg. Manderup’s blade cut away most of the nasal bridge, leaving the nasal cavity and septum exposed.

To hide his deformity, he constructed a prosthetic device made of wax, but it was unsatisfactory. Thus, he made a mold around the wax nose and fabricated a brass prosthesis. An artist matched the color of his skin. The prosthesis was held in place with glue. 

That’s frightening. 

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11 hours ago, MoseySusan said:

Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, Venus and the International Space Station are all in view together right on top of the Gemini constellation. SkyView app is cool.  

It is a cool app.  Especially where you live with clear night skies.  

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4 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

It is a cool app.  Especially where you live with clear night skies.  

Last night was overcast and snowing. I like that the app shows the sky even when indoors. mr. and I were playing pool. 
 

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12 hours ago, donkpow said:

405px-Tycho_Brahe.JPG

When he was 20, (Tycho) Brahe lost part of his nose in a sword duel with his third cousin, Manderup Parsberg. Manderup’s blade cut away most of the nasal bridge, leaving the nasal cavity and septum exposed.

To hide his deformity, he constructed a prosthetic device made of wax, but it was unsatisfactory. Thus, he made a mold around the wax nose and fabricated a brass prosthesis. An artist matched the color of his skin. The prosthesis was held in place with glue. 

I loved telling my Fall Semester Physics students that they had to use deep, applied math in a semester's study of motion all because a guy named Tycho Brahe was a jerk!

Tycho Brahe was such an asshole that the King of Denmark gave him an island just to get him out of Copenhagen.

Brahe constructed a pit and a set of angle-measuring tools and clocks and recorded decades of the sky positions of stars and planets at different times.

Johannes Kepler inherited Brahe's record books and, studying the planetary positions on them, came up with what are now known as Kepler's Laws:

1. Planets orbit the Sun in ellipses, not circles, with the Sun at one foci.

2. The area of the ellipse swept out at any time is a constant for each planet.

3. The orbital period of the planet is proportional to the length of its semi-major axis.

Some years later, an English mathematician wondering about Kepler's then little-known claims, asked Isaac Newton, "How should planets orbit the Sun?"

Newton, to his astonishment, replied, "In ellipses, of course."

Newton said something like, "I did a study many years ago and still have the tablet in which I wrote it."

Newton dug out the tablet and, there, on its pages were:

1. Unless acted on by a Force, an object in motion shall remain in motion in a straight line, an object at rest shall remain at rest.

2. The net force on a body is equal to the mass multiplied by the acceleration or F = ma.

3. For every force, there is an equal and opposite force (sometimes rendered as "For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction.").

Calculations on the acceleration of gravity, etc. were in the book and the mathematician told Newton he had to get the book published.

Since then, every NASA launch and many mechanical inventions have been guided by Newton's Laws of Motion.

And it all began with Tycho Brahe being an asshole!

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