Huygens, Christiaan
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==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
| − | Born in [[The Hague]], Christiaan Huygens was the second son of [[Constantijn Huygens]], a well-placed official who was secretary to the princes of Orange. Huygens's father was also a friend of Rene Descartes, and a prolific poet. At first, Constantijn tutored Huygens and his elder brother, but at age 16, Huygens was sent to the University of Leiden to study law and mathematics. He spent a year there, afterwards attending the [[College of Orange]] in [[Breda]], where his father was curator. | + | Born in [[The Hague]], Christiaan Huygens was the second son of [[Constantijn Huygens]], a well-placed official who was secretary to the princes of Orange. Huygens's father was also a friend of Rene Descartes, and a prolific poet. At first, Constantijn tutored Huygens and his elder brother, but in 1845, at age 16, Huygens was sent to the University of Leiden to study law and mathematics. He spent a year there, afterwards attending the [[College of Orange]] in [[Breda]], where his father was curator. |
| − | During his school years he enjoyed an active social life, and took up non-scholastic activities such as fencing. Among his instructors were John Pell and Frans Van Schooten. Apparently, Huygens sported a mustache at the time, and wore his sword to class. A fight broke out, and, under criticism from school officials, Huygens's father called him home. | + | During his school years he enjoyed an active social life, and took up non-scholastic activities such as fencing. Among his mathematics instructors were John Pell and Frans Van Schooten. Apparently, Huygens sported a mustache at the time, and wore his sword to class. A fight broke out, and, under criticism from school officials, Huygens's father called him home. |
| − | In 1651, Huygens published his first important work on the quadrature of the circle, or the task of finding the dimensions of a square with the same area as a given circle. His results contradicted those of a well-recognized contemporary, in that Huygens recognized that "Pi" was an irrational number. | + | In 1849, he took a trip to Denmark with the hope of meeting Descartes, but the entourage with which he traveled left the country sooner than made a meeting possible. |
| + | |||
| + | In 1651, Huygens published his first important work on the quadrature of the circle and , or the task of finding the dimensions of a square with the same area as a given circle. He also addressed the same problem with respect to the ellipse and the hyperbola. His results contradicted those of a well-recognized contemporary, in that Huygens recognized that "Pi" was an irrational number. | ||
The very next year, Huygens discovered the laws of collision—the relationship between the velocities and masses of two bodies before and after they collide. His results were in conflict with those of Descartes, whom he greatly admired. Huygens refused to concede his conclusion, but he was dissuaded from publication until 1669. Isaac Newton later cited Huygens as elucidating the principles upon which he formulated his second law of motion. | The very next year, Huygens discovered the laws of collision—the relationship between the velocities and masses of two bodies before and after they collide. His results were in conflict with those of Descartes, whom he greatly admired. Huygens refused to concede his conclusion, but he was dissuaded from publication until 1669. Isaac Newton later cited Huygens as elucidating the principles upon which he formulated his second law of motion. | ||
| − | Huygens | + | In 1655 Huygens traveled to France and was awarded his doctorate at Angiers. In the same year, he discovered Saturn's moon, Titan. He also examined Saturn's [[planetary ring]]s, and in 1656 he discovered that those rings consisted of rocks. In the same year he observed and sketched the [[Orion Nebula]]. His drawing, the first such known of the Orion nebula, was published in ''Systema Saturnium'' in 1659. Using his modern [[telescope]] he succeeded in subdividing the nebula into different [[star]]s. He also discovered several [[nebula|interstellar nebulae]] and some [[double star]]s. |
After [[Blaise Pascal]] encouraged him to do so, Huygens wrote the first book on [[probability theory]], which he had published in 1657. | After [[Blaise Pascal]] encouraged him to do so, Huygens wrote the first book on [[probability theory]], which he had published in 1657. | ||
| − | + | ===Invention of the pendulum clock=== | |
| + | His invention on Christmas 1656, the [[pendulum clock]] (patented 1657), was a breakthrough in timekeeping. Devices known as [[escapement]]s regulate the rate of a [[watch]] or clock, and the anchor escapement represented a major step in the development of accurate watches. Subsequent to this invention, Huygens discovered that the period of a pendulum moving along a circular path varied with its amplitude to a small degree, and he sought to establish the curve which, if a weight is constricted to follow while being acted on by gravity, will produce a motion in which the period is independent of the amplitude. He found that this curve was the [[cycloid]]. By constraining the bob to move along such a curve in the form of cycloidal cheeks guiding a flexible pendulum suspension, he ensured a regular (i.e isochronous) swing of the pendulum irrespective of its amplitude, i.e. irrespective of how far it moved side to side. The mathematical and practical details of this finding were published in "Horologium Oscillatorium" of 1673. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Huygens also observed that two pendulums mounted on the same beam will come to swing in perfectly opposite directions, an observation he referred to as [[odd sympathy]]. Contrary to sometimes expressed popular belief Huygens was not a clockmaker, and is not known to have ever made any clock himself; he was a scholar, scientist and inventor, and the oldest known pendulum clocks were made "under the privilege" -i.e. based on a license from Huygens- by [[Salomon Coster]] in [[The Hague]]. The oldest known Huygens style pendulum clock is dated 1657 and can be seen at the [[Museum Boerhaave]] in [[Leiden]] <ref> Hans van den Ende: "Huygens's Legacy, The Golden Age of the Pendulum Clock," Fromanteel Ldt., 2004, </ref> <ref>van Kersen, Frits & van den Ende, Hans: Oppwindende Klokken - De Gouden Eeuw van het Slingeruurwerk 12 September - 29 November 2004 [Exhibition Catalog Paleis Het Loo]; Apeldoorn: Paleis Het Loo,2004 </ref> <ref> Hooijmaijers, Hans; Telling time - Devices for time measurement in museum Boerhaave - A Descriptive Catalogue; Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 2005 </ref> <ref>Anonymous. Chistiaan Huygens 1629-1695, Chapter 1: Slingeruurwerken; Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1988 </ref>, which also shows an important astronomical clock owned and used by Huygens. | ||
Huygens also developed a [[balance spring]] clock more or less contemporaneously with, though separately from, [[Robert Hooke]], and controversy over whose invention was the earlier persisted for centuries. In February 2006, a long-lost copy of Hooke's handwritten notes from several decades' [[Royal Society]] meetings was discovered in a cupboard in Hampshire, and the balance-spring controversy appears by evidence contained in those notes to be settled in favor of Hooke's claim. | Huygens also developed a [[balance spring]] clock more or less contemporaneously with, though separately from, [[Robert Hooke]], and controversy over whose invention was the earlier persisted for centuries. In February 2006, a long-lost copy of Hooke's handwritten notes from several decades' [[Royal Society]] meetings was discovered in a cupboard in Hampshire, and the balance-spring controversy appears by evidence contained in those notes to be settled in favor of Hooke's claim. | ||
Revision as of 09:56, 23 September 2007
|
Christiaan Huygens | |
|---|---|
 Christiaan Huygens | |
| Born |
April 14 1629 |
| Died | July 8 1695 (aged 66) The Hague, Netherlands |
| Residence |  Netherlands,  France
|
| Nationality | Dutch
|
| Field | Physicist and mathematician |
| Institutions | Royal Society of London French Academy of Sciences |
| Alma mater | University of Leiden College of Orange |
| Known for | Pendulum clock Huygens–Fresnel principle |
Christiaan Huygens (pronounced in English (IPA): [ˈhaɪ.gənz]; in Dutch: [ˈhœy.ɣəns]) (April 14, 1629 – July 8, 1695), was a Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist best known for his astronomical discoveries, including the rings of Saturn and Saturn's largest moon, Titan. He was the inventor of the pendulum clock, and his work in mechanics became the basis for some of Isaac Newton's laws of motion.
Biography
Born in The Hague, Christiaan Huygens was the second son of Constantijn Huygens, a well-placed official who was secretary to the princes of Orange. Huygens's father was also a friend of Rene Descartes, and a prolific poet. At first, Constantijn tutored Huygens and his elder brother, but in 1845, at age 16, Huygens was sent to the University of Leiden to study law and mathematics. He spent a year there, afterwards attending the College of Orange in Breda, where his father was curator.
During his school years he enjoyed an active social life, and took up non-scholastic activities such as fencing. Among his mathematics instructors were John Pell and Frans Van Schooten. Apparently, Huygens sported a mustache at the time, and wore his sword to class. A fight broke out, and, under criticism from school officials, Huygens's father called him home.
In 1849, he took a trip to Denmark with the hope of meeting Descartes, but the entourage with which he traveled left the country sooner than made a meeting possible.
In 1651, Huygens published his first important work on the quadrature of the circle and , or the task of finding the dimensions of a square with the same area as a given circle. He also addressed the same problem with respect to the ellipse and the hyperbola. His results contradicted those of a well-recognized contemporary, in that Huygens recognized that "Pi" was an irrational number.
The very next year, Huygens discovered the laws of collision—the relationship between the velocities and masses of two bodies before and after they collide. His results were in conflict with those of Descartes, whom he greatly admired. Huygens refused to concede his conclusion, but he was dissuaded from publication until 1669. Isaac Newton later cited Huygens as elucidating the principles upon which he formulated his second law of motion.
In 1655 Huygens traveled to France and was awarded his doctorate at Angiers. In the same year, he discovered Saturn's moon, Titan. He also examined Saturn's planetary rings, and in 1656 he discovered that those rings consisted of rocks. In the same year he observed and sketched the Orion Nebula. His drawing, the first such known of the Orion nebula, was published in Systema Saturnium in 1659. Using his modern telescope he succeeded in subdividing the nebula into different stars. He also discovered several interstellar nebulae and some double stars.
After Blaise Pascal encouraged him to do so, Huygens wrote the first book on probability theory, which he had published in 1657.
Invention of the pendulum clock
His invention on Christmas 1656, the pendulum clock (patented 1657), was a breakthrough in timekeeping. Devices known as escapements regulate the rate of a watch or clock, and the anchor escapement represented a major step in the development of accurate watches. Subsequent to this invention, Huygens discovered that the period of a pendulum moving along a circular path varied with its amplitude to a small degree, and he sought to establish the curve which, if a weight is constricted to follow while being acted on by gravity, will produce a motion in which the period is independent of the amplitude. He found that this curve was the cycloid. By constraining the bob to move along such a curve in the form of cycloidal cheeks guiding a flexible pendulum suspension, he ensured a regular (i.e isochronous) swing of the pendulum irrespective of its amplitude, i.e. irrespective of how far it moved side to side. The mathematical and practical details of this finding were published in "Horologium Oscillatorium" of 1673.
Huygens also observed that two pendulums mounted on the same beam will come to swing in perfectly opposite directions, an observation he referred to as odd sympathy. Contrary to sometimes expressed popular belief Huygens was not a clockmaker, and is not known to have ever made any clock himself; he was a scholar, scientist and inventor, and the oldest known pendulum clocks were made "under the privilege" -i.e. based on a license from Huygens- by Salomon Coster in The Hague. The oldest known Huygens style pendulum clock is dated 1657 and can be seen at the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden [1] [2] [3] [4], which also shows an important astronomical clock owned and used by Huygens.
Huygens also developed a balance spring clock more or less contemporaneously with, though separately from, Robert Hooke, and controversy over whose invention was the earlier persisted for centuries. In February 2006, a long-lost copy of Hooke's handwritten notes from several decades' Royal Society meetings was discovered in a cupboard in Hampshire, and the balance-spring controversy appears by evidence contained in those notes to be settled in favor of Hooke's claim.
The Royal Society elected Huygens a member in 1663. In the year 1666 Huygens moved to Paris where he held a position at the French Academy of Sciences under the patronage of Louis XIV. Using the Paris Observatory (completed in 1672) he made further astronomical observations. In 1684 he published Astroscopia Compendiaria, which presented his new aerial (tubeless) telescope.
Huygens speculated in detail about life on other planets. In his book Cosmotheoros, further entitled The celestial worlds discover'd: or, conjectures concerning the inhabitants, plants and productions of the worlds in the planets,[5] he imagined a universe brimming with life, much of it very similar to life on seventeenth century Earth. The liberal climate in the Netherlands of that time not only allowed but encouraged such speculation. In sharp contrast, philosopher Giordano Bruno, who also believed in many inhabited worlds, was burned at the stake by the Italian authorities for his beliefs in 1600.
In 1675, Christiaan Huygens patented a pocket watch. He also invented numerous other devices, including a 31 tone to the octave keyboard instrument which made use of his discovery of 31 equal temperament.
Huygens moved back to The Hague in 1681 after suffering serious illness. He attempted to return to France in 1685 but the revocation of the Edict of Nantes precluded this move. Huygens died in The Hague on July 8, 1695.
Named after Huygens
- The brighter interior of the Orion Nebula bears the name of the Huygens Region in his honor.
- The Huygens probe: The lander for the Saturnian moon Titan, part of the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn
- Asteroid 2801 Huygens
- A crater on Mars
- Mons Huygens, a mountain on the Moon
- Huygens Software, a microscope image processing package.
- Achromatic eyepiece design named about him
- The Huygens–Fresnel principle, a simple model to understand disturbances in wave propagation.
- Huygens wavelets, the fundamental mathematical basis for scalar diffraction theory
- W.I.S.V. Christiaan Huygens: Dutch study guild for the studies Mathemathics and Computer Science at the Delft University of Technology
- Huygens Laboratory: Home of the Physics department at Leiden University, The Netherlands
- Huygens Supercomputer: National Supercomputer facility of The Netherlands, located at SARA in Amsterdam
- The Huygens-building in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, first building on the Space Business park opposite Estec (ESA)
- The Huygens-building at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. One of the major buildings of the science department at the university of Nijmegen.
See also
Notes
- ↑ Hans van den Ende: "Huygens's Legacy, The Golden Age of the Pendulum Clock," Fromanteel Ldt., 2004,
- ↑ van Kersen, Frits & van den Ende, Hans: Oppwindende Klokken - De Gouden Eeuw van het Slingeruurwerk 12 September - 29 November 2004 [Exhibition Catalog Paleis Het Loo]; Apeldoorn: Paleis Het Loo,2004
- ↑ Hooijmaijers, Hans; Telling time - Devices for time measurement in museum Boerhaave - A Descriptive Catalogue; Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 2005
- ↑ Anonymous. Chistiaan Huygens 1629-1695, Chapter 1: Slingeruurwerken; Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1988
- ↑ see Cosmotheoros
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
<<We need at least 3 reliable references here, properly formatted.>>
Andriesse, C.D. 2005. Huygens: The Man Behind the Principle. Foreword by Sally Miedema. Cambridge University Press.
External links
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson. Christiaan Huygens at the MacTutor archive
- Works by Christiaan Huygens. Project Gutenberg
- Treatise on Light translated into English by Silvanus P. Thompson, Project Gutenberg etext.
- De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae or The Value of all Chances in Games of Fortune, 1657 Christiaan Huygens' book on probability theory. An English translation published in 1714. Text pdf file.
- Huygensmuseum Hofwijck in Voorburg, The Netherlands, where Huygens lived and worked.
- Huygens Clocks exhibition from the Science Museum, London
- Huygens and music theory Huygens–Fokker Foundation —on Huygens' 31 equal temperament and how it has been used
- How to pronounce "Christiaan Huygens" (includes sound file of pronunciations by Dutch people)
- Systema Saturnium 1659 text a digital edition of Smithsonian Libraries
- Exhibition on Huygens in University Library Leiden (in Dutch)
- Christiaan Huygens on the 25 Dutch Guilder banknote of the 1950's.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Huygens, Christiaan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Physicist and mathematician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 14, 1629 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | The Hague, Netherlands |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 8, 1690 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | The Hague, Netherlands |
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