According to the The Biography.com, Sir Issac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, England and was a very established physicist and mathematician, also credited as one of the great minds of the 17th century Scientific Revolution. He published "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica", a book that has been referred to as the single most impacting book on physics. Unfortunately, on March 31, 1727 Newton passed away in London.[1]
Sourced From: http://www.heisnear.com/SirIsaacNewtonPIC400.jpg
In earthobservatory.nasa.gov it explains that Kepler was charged with the task of defining the orbit of mars. Kepler was able to figure out three laws that explained the motion of planet's orbits using a lot of Tycho Brahe's research and observations. Kepler noted that there is a precise mathematical relationship between the distance from the sun and a planet and also the amount of time it takes to revolve around the sun, as defined in his third law. Kepler's third law inspired Newton who also discovered three laws that explains motion.[2]
In the online article "Sir Isaac Newton: The Universal Law of Gravitation'', there is a mathematical proof of Newtons modification of Kepler's Laws. It explains that Newton realized that the both sun and planets orbited around the common center of mass.[3]
The article, Newtonian Gravitation and the Laws of Kepler, further explains how Newton's Laws corrected Kepler's Laws. It explains the Kepler's and Newtons Laws together imply that planets travelling in an ellipitcal orbit around the sun are:
1. heading countinously around the sun
2. proportional to the product for the mass of the planets and mass of the sun
3. inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the planets and sun[4]
Newton goes on to precisely form the Universal Gravitational Law.
Sourced from: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newtongrav.html#universal
An article online, "Imagining the Universe", show what Kepler's third law look like when applied with Newtons Laws. It states the Kepler's third law expresses:
Sourced From: http://astro.physics.uiowa.edu/ITU/glossary/keplers-third-law/
The period (P, measured in years) squared is approximately equal to the size of the orbit (a, measured in astronomical units) cubed.
Newton then modifies Kepler's 3rd law by applying his laws of motion and law of gravity so that it takes the form:
Sourced From: http://astro.physics.uiowa.edu/ITU/glossary/keplers-third-law/
Newton figures out the precise mathematical relationship where, M1 and M2 are the masses of the two orbiting objects.[5]
This discovery by Newton was an enormous contribution to the Scientific community and an huge scientific breakthrough. Prior to this Newton had already discovered his three laws of motion on earth and by applying his laws with Kepler's Laws, he was able to unify his laws of motion to not only terrestrial applications but also celestial application. He came to the conclusion that the laws of motion and gravity not only apply to the objects on earth but also to the planets. This was also important because he further proved Copernicus's heliocentric theory as well, with the sun in the center and other planets including earth revolved around it.[4]
