planet’s orbital period (or year) is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis (shown as the horizontal arrow in bottom ellipse). But, I find it fascinating- & important to note- that he came to these laws exploring mystical ideas about music, geometry & congruence with physical phenomena. 🧵3

Sometimes we tell simple, but misleading stories about scientific progress & downplay how we can get the right answer for the wrong reasons. First he argued that the spacing of the 6 known planets from the Sun were related to the 5 Platonic solids, each encased in a sphere & nested on inside 🧵4