volume. Guldin made some attempts to prove his theorem, but Cavalieri pointed out the weakness of his demonstration.
Johannes Kepler (1671–1630) was a native of Würtemberg and imbibed Copernican principles while at the University of Tübingen. His pursuit of science was repeatedly interrupted by war, religious persecution, pecuniary embarrassments, frequent changes of residence, and family troubles. In 1600 he became for one year assistant to the Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, in the observatory near Prague. The relation between the two great astronomers was not always of an agreeable character. Kepler's publications are voluminous. His first attempt to explain the solar system was made in 1596, when he thought he had discovered a curious relation between the five regular solids and the number and distance of the planets. The publication of this pseudo-discovery brought him much fame. Maturer reflection and intercourse with Tycho Brahe and Galileo led him to investigations and results more worthy of his genius—"Kepler's laws." He enriched pure mathematics as well as astronomy. It is not strange that he was interested in the mathematical science which had done him so much service; for "if the Greeks had not cultivated conic sections, Kepler could not have superseded Ptolemy."[11] The Greeks never dreamed that these curves would ever be of practical use; Aristæus and Apollonius studied them merely to satisfy their intellectual cravings after the ideal; yet the conic sections assisted Kepler in tracing the march of the planets in their elliptic orbits. Kepler made also extended use of logarithms and decimal fractions, and was enthusiastic in diffusing a knowledge of them. At one time, while purchasing wine, he was struck by the inaccuracy of the ordinary modes of determining the contents of kegs. This led him to the study of the volumes of solids of revolution and to the publication of the Stereometria Doliorum in 1615. In it he deals first with the
