Christiaan Huygens
Biography - April 14 1629 - 8 July 1695
● Second child of Constantijn Huygens and
Suzanna van Baerle
● Constantijn was good friends with Descartes
and Galileo
● Studied Math, Science, and Liberal Arts at
home, attended colleges in the Netherlands
● Lived in the Hague (Capital of Holland) and
Paris throughout his life
● Collaborated throughout his lifetime with
Fermat, Pascal, and many others, and
tutored Gottfried Leibniz in Mathematics
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Adriaanhenneman_constantijn-huygens_and_his-five-children.png
Astronomy in the Mid-1600’s
● “Astronomical Revolution”, turmoil
caused by Copernicus and Galileo
● Heliocentric model beginning to be
accepted
● Kepler’s work supported Copernicus,
Newton hadn’t been born yet
● Only Galilean refracting telescopes
used for Astronomy
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Planisphæri_c
œleste.jpg/640px-Planisphæri_cœleste.jpg
Contributions - Physics and Math
● Created formulas for elastic two-body
collisions
● Formulated the equation for
Centripetal Force,
● Postulated a wave theory of light and
believed the speed of light was
constant
● Worked in Game Theory and
Geometry
● Paved the way for many of Newton’s
Discovery
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Hofwijck_west
kant.JPG/408px-Hofwijck_westkant.JPG
Contributions - Inventions, Other
● Invented the Pendulum Clock
● Invented a spring-powered
watch
● May have invented the Magic
Lantern
● Helped develop the aerial
telescope
● Invented the dual-lensed
Huygenian eyepiece for
telescopes
● Also worked in musical theory
and played the Harpsichord
Clockwise from top right:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Aerialtelescope.jpg/378px-Aerialtelescope.jpg,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/H6_clock.jpg,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Fotothek_df_tg_0003783_Uhr_%5E_Uhrwerk.jpg,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/The_Childrens_Museum_of_Indianapolis__Magic_lantern_-_detail.jpg/401px-The_Childrens_Museum_of_Indianapolis_-_Magic_lantern_-_detail.jpg,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Huygens_1703.png
Contributions - Astronomy
● Discovered Saturn’s moon Titan
● Discovered and identified the rings
of Saturn
● Speculated on extraterrestrial life
shortly before his death
http://galileo.rice.edu/images/things/huygens_phases1.gif
Legacy
● One of the most well-known scientists of his
time
● His discoveries paved the way for Newton and
later astronomers
● The pendulum clock increased clock accuracy
by a huge magnitude, allowing people to
effectively measure time
● One of the most important figures in Horology
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Christiaan_Huygens.jpg
Cassini – Huygens Mission
● NASA / ESA / ASI collaboration
● Cassini orbits Saturn, first craft
to do so, ongoing mission
● Measurements of Saturn,
moons, rings
● More proof of relativity
● Huygens lander landed on
Titan in January 2005
● Measured atmosphere, took
pictures, first outer solar
system pictures and landing
Left: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Cassini-huygens_anim.gif
Right: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Huygens_surface_color_sr.jpg
Bibliography
● http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Huygens/hu
ygens-introduction.htm
● https://archive.org/details/CristianiHugeni00Huyg
● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiaan_Huygens
● http://www-history.mcs.stand.ac.uk/Extras/Huygens_Saturn.html
● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini–Huygens