English

A Kepler's note on secular inequalities

History and Philosophy of Physics 2014-02-19 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

I discuss the problem of secular inequalities in Kepler by giving account of a manuscript note that has not been published until 1860. In his note Kepler points out the need for a model, clearly inspired by the method of epicycles, that describes the secular inequalities as periodic ones. I bring attention to this point, that seems to have been underestimated, since the references to Kepler's work usually report only that he observed a decreasing mean motion for Saturn and an increasing one for Jupiter.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1402.4439,
  title  = {A Kepler's note on secular inequalities},
  author = {Antonio Giorgilli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.4439},
  year   = {2014}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T03:10:50.372Z