To Know That We Know What We Know, and to Know That We Do Not Know What We Do Not Know

“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.”

Nicholaus Copernicus

2285 Torun, Royal Prussia, 85764

(285) 443-8724

Michelle Pacione

Nicole Binnall

Job Objective:

Why should I be recognized at the Royal Academie de Sciences? I am known as the founder of the scientific revolution. I brought about a view on the world that no one had ever before; the thought that the earth was not the center of the universe, but rather the sun, the heliocentric theory. This went against what the church thought, and could have gotten me killed, yet I published my works so the world would have a better idea of the universe that surrounds them. Good thing my theory proved right!

Qualifications/ Life Experiences:

·  Position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross

·  I worked for years with the Royal Prussian Diet on monetary reform and published studies on the value of money

·  governor of Warmia, I administered taxes and dealt out justice

·  I traveled extensively on government business and as a diplomat, on behalf of the Prince-Bishop of Warmia

·  After performing many astronomical observations and calculations, I wrote De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

Employment:

·  Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross

·  Royal Prussian Diet

·  Governor of Warnia

·  Diplomat of Prince-Bishop of Warnia

Education and Training:

·  Four years at the Cracow Academy (today the Jagiellonian University)

First astronomy teacher: Albert Brudzewski.

·  I studied law and medicine at the universities of Bologna and Padua

·  disciple and assistant of Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara

·  I studied at Padua and at Ferrara where in 1503 I received my doctorate in canon law

Summary of Major Works

·  I formulated one of the earliest iterations of the theory that 'bad' money will drive 'good' legal-tender money out of circulation, now known as "Gresham's Law."

·  In 1543 I published De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the revolution of the Celestial Spheres) that described that the Earth is another planet revolving around the fixed sun once a year, and turning on its axis once a day, and gave a clear account of the cause of the seasons. This work was divided into six books: one included a general vision of the heliocentric theory and a summarized exposition of my idea of the world, the second presents the principles of spherical astronomy and a list of stars, the third is dedicated to the apparent motions of the sun and to related phenomena, the fourth has a description of the moon and its orbital motions, and the fifth and sixth are concrete exposition of the new system.

·  I wrote De revolutionibus, which describes the seven parts of the Copernican theory:

1.  There is no one center in the universe

2.  The Earth’s center is not the center of the universe

3.  The center of the universe is near the sun

4.  The distance from the Earth to the sun is imperceptible compared with the distance to the stars

5.  The rotation of the Earth accounts for the daily rotation of the stars

6.  The apparent annual cycle of movements of the sun is caused by the Earth revolving around the sun

7.  The apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused by the motion of the Earth, from which one observes

Personality References:

·  "Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus." -Goethe

·  "I was pleased to think of the right of the Polish nobleman to upset with its simple veto the resolution of a (parliament) meeting; and the Pole Copernicus seemed to have made from this right against the resolution and all appearances of other people the largest and worthiest use." –Nietzsche

·  "If Copernicus had any genuine fear of publication, it was the reaction of scientists, not clerics, that worried him. Other churchmen before him — Nicole Oresme (a French bishop) in the fourteenth century and Nicolaus Cusanus (a German cardinal) in the fifteenth — had freely discussed the possible motion of the earth, and there was no reason to suppose that the reappearance of this idea in the sixteenth century would cause a religious stir." - David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers