Editing 21: Kepler

{{comic
| number    = 21
| date      = October 17, 2005
| title     = Kepler
| before    = <big><big><span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=10%3A58%20am-,Monday%27s%20drawing,-Another%20one%20which Original title</span>]: '''Monday's drawing'''</big></big>
| image     = kepler.jpg
| titletext = Science joke. You should probably move along.<br><br><span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=10%3A58%20am-,Monday%27s%20drawing,-Another%20one%20which Original caption</span>]: Another one which, if you don't get, you're probably better off.
}}

==Explanation==
This was the twentieth comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The previous one was [[20: Ferret]], and the next one was [[44: Love]].

{{w|Johannes Kepler}} was a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer, best known for his laws of planetary motion. By using {{w|Tycho Brahe}}'s observations of our solar system (Brahe gave Kepler the job of observing and explaining the motion of the planet Mars), Kepler was able to deduce that planets in the system do not move in circular orbits around the Sun, but rather in elliptical ones. In doing so, he directly contradicted Brahe's own conviction that the Earth was the center of the universe. According to {{w|Kepler's laws of planetary motion#Second law|Kepler's Second Law}}, "A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time," somewhat akin to sweeping a broom over the floor. In the comic, the janitor Kepler also sweeps the same area, although in this case, "area" is used in the sense of "surface" (of floor) rather than in the purely mathematical sense. It is also very monotonous, like a planet's set orbit, but Kepler doesn't mind this.

The comic could also be seen as a subtle reference to the Kepler space telescope that was searching for exoplanets (planets outside the Solar system) from March 2009 to August 2013, by looking at exactly the same spot in the night sky over and over again.  Even though the telescope was not launched until 4 years after this comic was published, the details of Project Kepler had been disclosed by NASA press releases [https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2001/01_107AR.html as early as 2001].

The title text assumes that the reader is scientifically illiterate and won't understand the joke, which is ironic, considering how xkcd came to be known for embracing STEM fields and nerdiness in general. Or perhaps moving along refers to tracing an orbit.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueball-like guys stand in an aisle in a store.]
:Cueball: Nice store. How do you keep the floors so clean?
:Store manager: Oh, we hired this dude named Kepler, he's really good. Hard worker. Doesn't mind the monotony. Sweeps out the same area every night.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Posted on LiveJournal| 20]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd.com]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]