The main historical problem in the history of science is: to explain what is going on with the night sky, in particular what the planets are doing. The resolution of this was the greatest achievement of the 17th century.
The key figures were Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe, Kepler and most famously Isaac Newton. This interesting story, culminating with Kepler’s Laws and their explanation by Newton’s Laws of Motion and Law of Gravitation, ought to be studied in depth by all undergraduate students of mathematics!
It is notable that the story involves classical geometry in a major way, and gives a great impetus to our study of conic sections and their many remarkable properties.
My research papers can be found at my Research Gate page, at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/…. I also have a blog at http://njwildberger.com/, where I will discuss lots of foundational issues, along with other things, and you can check out my webpages at http://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~norman/. Of course if you want to support all these bold initiatives, become a Patron of this Channel at https://www.patreon.com/njwildberger?… .
Post time: Jun-13-2017