The scientific method

On November 11, 1572, a young Danish nobleman named Tycho Brahe observed the supernova of a star that we now call SN 1572. From that time until his death 30 years later, he devoted his wealth and energies to the accumulation of astronomical data. His young German assistant, Johannes Kepler, spent 18 years analyzing that data before he finally formulated his three laws of planetary motion in 1618.

Figure 1 Kepler

Historians of science usually attribute Kepler's achievement as the beginning of the Scientific Revolution. Here were the essential steps of the scientific method: observe nature, collect the data, analyze the data, formulate a theory, and then test that theory with more data. Note the central step here: data analysis.

Of course, Kepler did not have either of the modern tools that data analysts use today: algorithms and computers on which to implement them. He did, however, apply one technological breakthrough that surely facilitated his number crunching: logarithms. In 1620, he stated that Napier's invention of logarithms in 1614 had been essential to his discovery of the third law of planetary motion.

Kepler's achievements had a profound effect upon Galileo Galilei a generation later, and upon Isaac Newton a generation after him. Both men practiced the scientific method with spectacular success.