Copernicus1February 473 19 was born in a wealthy family in Torun-sur-Visva, Poland. 18 years old, studying at the University of Klaikau, the old capital of Poland, became interested in astronomy while studying medicine. 1496, 23-year-old Copernicus came to Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance, and studied law, medicine and theology at the University of Bologna and the University of Padua. Novara, an astronomer at the University of Bologna (1454- 1540), had a great influence on Copernicus, from whom he learned astronomical observation techniques and. Later, he received a doctorate in religious law in university of ferrara. Copernicus, as a doctor, is known as the "imperial doctor" because of his brilliant medical skills. Copernicus spent most of his adult life as a priest in Flawn Translation Cathedral. Copernicus was not a professional astronomer. His famous masterpieces were finished in his spare time.

During his stay in Italy, Copernicus became familiar with the theory of the Greek philosopher Aristakes (the third century before), and he was convinced that the Heliocentrism of the earth and other planets revolving around the sun was correct. When he was about 40 years old, he began to distribute a short manuscript among his friends, initially expounding his views on Heliocentrism. After years of observation and calculation, Copernicus finally completed his masterpiece "The Theory of the Operation of Celestial Bodies". The numerical accuracy of his observation and calculation in De Revolution ibus orbium coelestium is amazing. For example, he got the sidereal year in 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 40 seconds, which is about 30 seconds more than the exact value now, and the error is only one in a million; The average distance from the moon to the earth he got was 60.30 times that of radius of the earth, and compared with the current 60.27 times, the error was only five ten thousandths.

1533, 60-year-old Copernicus made a series of speeches in Rome and put forward the main points of his theory, which was not opposed by the Pope. But he was afraid of church opposition, and even after his book was finished, he still dared not publish it. It was not until he was nearly 70 years old that he finally decided to publish it. 1543 On the day of his death on May 24th, I received a book written by him from the publishing house.

In the book, he correctly discusses that the earth moves around the axis; The moon goes around the earth; The fact that the earth and all other planets revolve around the sun. But he also seriously underestimated the size of the solar system like his predecessors. He thinks that the orbit of a star is a series of concentric circles, which is of course wrong. The mathematical operations in his theory are both complicated and inaccurate. However, his book immediately attracted great attention and prompted other astronomers to observe the motion of planets more accurately, the most famous of which was the great Danish astronomer Taishou Brejo. Kepler finally deduced the correct law of star motion according to the observation data accumulated by the satrap.

Although Aristakes suggested that Heliocentrism was earlier than Copernicus 1700 years ago, actually Copernicus got this reputation. Aristakes just made a guess by inspiration, without discussing it in detail, so his theory is useless in science. After Copernicus solved the mathematical problems in the conjecture one by one, he turned it into a useful scientific theory-a theory that can be used to make predictions. By examining the observation results of celestial bodies and comparing them with the old theory that the earth is the center of the universe, you will find its great significance.

Obviously, Copernicus' theory is a revolution in human understanding of the universe, which has greatly changed people's whole world outlook. But when evaluating Copernicus' influence, we should also note that astronomy is not widely used like physics, chemistry and biology. Theoretically, even if people don't know anything about the knowledge and application of Copernicus, they will make TV sets, cars, modern factories and the like. But it is inconceivable not to apply the theories of Faraday, Maxwell, lavoisier and Newton.

Only considering the influence of Copernicus theory on technology will completely ignore its real significance. Copernicus's book is an indispensable prelude to the work of Galileo and Kepler. They became Newton's main predecessors again. It was the discovery of these two things that enabled Newton to determine the laws of motion and gravity.

From a historical point of view, the theory of celestial bodies is the starting point of contemporary astronomy-and of course the starting point of modern science.