Transcript Christian Huygens - Michael Ware Home

Christian Huygens
Childhood




Born in 1629 in The Hague, Netherlands
Belonged to an important Dutch family
Home schooled by private teachers until 16
Studied law and mathematics at the University of Leiden
Early Career





Interested in the heavens
Developed an improved way of
grinding lenses
Built very large refracting
telescopes
Discovered many features of the
solar system
Published the first book on
probability theory
Professional Career





Elected to the Royal Society in 1633
Founding member French Royal Society in 1666
Published several books on topics ranging from light, to
math, to life on other planets
Mentor of Gottfried Leibniz in mathematics
Patented a pocket watch
Time Keeping


Invented very accurate pendulum clock
This enabled mariners to determine latitude
Wave Theory



Believed that light consisted of waves
Developed what is now known as “Huygens’
Principle”
Argued that if light were a particle, two
intersecting beams would bounce off each
other
Celestial Worlds



Believed that the universe was full of life much like 17th
century Europe
Published The Celestial Worlds Discover’d on the topic
Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, who also believed in
many inhabited worlds, was burned at the stake for his
beliefs in 1600
Christian Huygens


He died in the Netherlands in 1695
Many things named in his honor including a Lunar
mountain range, a Martian crater, an asteroid, the bright
spot in the Orion Nebula, and a NASA space probe.
References
1.
www.wikipedia.org
2.
Portrait taken from www.worldtempus.com/wt/1/1043
3.
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/xtra/Bios/huygens.html
4.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Huygens.html
5.
Saturn image taken from http://my.voyager.net/~stargazer/huygens.html
6.
Huygens’ Principle diagram taken from
http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath242/kmath242.htm