[Nets]

As noemon is alluding to, the Ptolemaic model, which "wrong", had more predictive power than the "correct" Copernican heliocentric model. Kepler had to build in a lot of the Ptolemaic insights about orbital speeds, eccentric orbits, etc to improve the Copernican model.

[Prosthetic Conscience]

As noemon is alluding to, the Ptolemaic model, which "wrong", had more predictive power than the "correct" Copernican heliocentric model. Kepler had to build in a lot of the Ptolemaic insights about orbital speeds, eccentric orbits, etc to improve the Copernican model.

But it was completely wrong on the distances of the planets. It said Venus was always closer to Earth than the Sun. It said Mars was always further away. Ptolemy didn't have correct insights about orbital speeds or eccentric orbits. He had incorrect ones (because they all involved circles, not ellipses) that were tweaked until they got a direction roughly right. Kepler may have contemplated using Ptolemy's methods at some time, but in the end, he uses ellipses instead.

[Zamuel]

Kepler may have contemplated using Ptolemy's methods at some time, but in the end, he uses ellipses instead.

Copernicus was a mathematician, he got the math refined as good as it could be on paper ... So good that they based our present calendar on HIS figures. Kepler was a scientist, and refined the Copernican system through DIRECT OBSERVATION ... The math still worked, but Kepler showed us WHY it worked. Kepler was much inspired by the cosmological thinking of Giordano Bruno.

ALL of them were strongly opposed by theocrats, who had a great deal invested in maintaining the secrets of THEIR hidden knowledge.

Zam