Christian Huyghens was born April 14, 1629—died July 8, 1695. Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, who founded the wave theory of light, discovered the true shape of the rings of Saturn, and made original contributions to the science of dynamics—the study of the action of forces on bodies. Huygens was from a wealthy and was a middle-class family. His father, Constantijn Huygens, a diplomat, Latinist, and poet, was the friend and correspondent of many outstanding intellectual figures of the day, including the scientist and philosopher René Descartes. Christian Huygens mother is Suzanna van Baerle . From an early age, Huygens showed a marked mechanical bent and a talent for drawing and mathematics. Some of his early efforts in geometry
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician ho discovered that planetary motion is elliptical. Early in his life, Kepler wanted to prove that the universe obeyed Platonistic mathematical relationships, such as the planetary orbits were circular and at distances from the sun proportional to the Platonic solids (see paragraph below). However, when his friend the astronomer Tycho Brahe died, he gave Kepler his immense collection of astronomical observations. After years of studying these observations, Kepler realized that his previous thought about planetary motion were wrong, and he came up with his three laws of planetary motion. Unfortunately, he did not have a unifying theory for these laws. This had to until Newton formulated his laws of gravity and motion.
Christian Doppler was born November 29, 1803 to a stonemason and his wife in the town of Salzburg, Austria. His father, one in a long line of master stonemasons, operated a successful business in town that utilized the local marble quarries. Christian was forced, however, to forgo his family’s business because of his frail health, and he sought other opportunities in the work force. After high school, he attended the Vienna Polytechnic Institute in 1822 on a recommendation by his secondary school professor. There, he began his studies in mathematics and excelled in that field so much so that he graduating from the Institute three years later in 1825. From there, Doppler attended the University of Vienna to study higher mathematics, astronomy, and mechanics. Once he completed his studies in 1829, Christian began working for Professor Adam von Burg who taught mechanics and mathematics at the university. After being Burg’s assistant for only two years, Doppler published his first of eventually fifty-one scientific publications, titled A contribution to the theory of parallels. Doppler would go on to write three more publications before leaving the university to pursue a more perm...
Raised in a family of scientist, writer and teacher in Surrey, England, Aldous Huxley was well-educated. His father, Leonard Huxley’s father is a scientist who is known for supporting Charles Darwin’s idea of evolution. His mother, Julia Arnold, was related to the poet and essayist Matthew Arnold. Because of his background, Huxley had a wide range of knowledge from literature to science. In his writing, he was able to integrate scientific elements into his novels and essays.
William Blake first started to draw before he became a writer. His father James knew from the beginning that his son was extremely talented. From early childhood Blake spoke about of having visions, where he saw God. That’s when they realized that Blake had talented and his parents decided to home school him. He is and will always be one of Britain’s finest poems, writers, and painters. One of the most talented people of the 18th century. William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 in London. He was not recognized much during his lifetime. Blake was the one of the seven children of James and Catherine. William growing up wasn’t a fan of school. He only went
Jean Sylvain Bailly was famous for his advances in the sciences. Some of his accomplishments include the computation of an orbit for Halley's Comet and also studied the four satellites of Jupiter that were known at the time according to www.britannica.com. He was elected to the Academy of Science in 1763. In 1784,
The painter that I will be talking about is Edward Munch. He was born on December 12, 1863. He is best known as being a newborn expressionist painter and printer. He was born in Christiana Norway also known as Oslo. He was related to famous painters so it was in his blood. A few years after Edward was born, his mother passed of tuberculosis. He was raised in a single parent household with his dad. His father raised his brothers and sisters in a strict household. This might explain why Edward’s artwork had a strong tone.
Many discoveries in our vast universe can be attributed to amateur astronomers. I remember my first time discovering the moon with a simple telescope. Dr. William Huggins is what we can call an amateur. He is by far one of the wealthiest “amateurs” and influential astronomers of his time. Sir William Huggins was born in Stoke Newington, England on Feb. 7, 1824. Dr. William was born into a wealthy family and spent most of his time not having to work. He took advantage of this and worked with private tutors in the fields of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Sir Williams was a self-motivated learner. Even at younger ages he showed interest in many studies. He built apparatuses little by little to conduct his experiments. At the age of 28 he was appointed to the Microscopical Society for his studies of plants and animals physiology. During this period of his life, Sir Williams was not much of an Astronomer. He spent much of his time working at his parent’s business located in London.
Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571. He was born a very sickly child to very poor parents. He was born to a mercenary and an innkeeper’s daughter. At the age of five, Kepler’s father left him to go fight in the war of Netherlands, and he never returned most likely killed. Throughout his life Kepler was a very religious man. All of his works contained references to God or the like. He believe that man, since they were made by God, was capable of understanding the universe the God created. Moreover, He believed that God created the universe according to a mathematical plan. Kepler repeatedly thanked God for giving him the insight to his discoveries.
Robert Boyle was a very well known scientist, born in January 27, 1627 and died in 1691. He was influenced in science at the age of 14 after travelling and studies in Europe. He returns from Europe in 1644 and he was very interest in science by then. He builds his laboratory in Oxford and London and starts his research. He studies nature chemical and natural color, and he was the first person to publish his work in detail. Boyle studied the behavior of the volume of gas and the pressure and state that if the volume of a gas decrease, the pressure increase. ...
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician who lived between 1671-1630. Kepler was a Copernican and initially believed that planets should follow perfectly circular orbits (“Johan Kepler” 1). During this time period, Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the solar system was accepted. Ptolemy’s theory stated that Earth is at the center of the universe and stationary; closest to Earth is the Moon, and beyond it, expanding towards the outside, are Mercury, Venus, and the Sun in a straight line, followed by Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the “fixed stars”. The Ptolemaic system explained the numerous observed motions of the planets as having small spherical orbits called epicycles (“Astronomy” 2). Kepler is best known for introducing three effectual, applicable and valid laws of planetary motion by using the precise data he had developed from Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer, which helped Copernicus’s theory of the solar system gain universal reception (“Johan Kepler” 1). Nevertheless, he had made further effective contributions in the field of astronomy, which are valid to society and were used to change how the universe was perceived.
Copernicus was a Polish astronomer born in 1473, in Thorn, Poland and died in 1543. He entered the University of Krakow in 1491 and studied there for four years. In 1496 he joined the University of Bologna in Italy to study church law and studied astronomy on his own time. He was asked to make a new calendar using the geocentric theory, the theory that the sun and moon orbit the earth. He found several flaws with this system and was bothered by it and went on to discover that the planets actually orbit the sun. Galileo supported Copernicus’ theory when he made discoveries with the telescope. We consider Copernicus to be the founder of modern Astronomy.
Charles Perrault was born in 1628 and was of French descent. He was from a very wealthy family. His father was a lawyer, and his three brothers grew up to have successful careers as well. Perrault was able to attend the best schools, but preferred to be self-taught so he dropped out of
Helen’s father, Captain Arthur Keller, was a newspaper editor and a cotton farmer. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate Army. Her mother, Kate Keller, was born in the south, and she was related to John Adams. Helen loved her parents and had a great relationship with both of them.
...son to conceptualize the theory of gravity and its inverse-square effect.Argued that light was in fact waves and not particles. Isaac Newton believed light was made up of particles. Discovered a new planet, Uranus, (reported on 22nd January 1673)... 100 years before it was accidentally re-discovered in 1781. Discovered that sound could travel along a wire and around corners.Hooke discovered and proved that the comet seen in 1665 was the same one seen in 1618, Haley's comet. Designed the first equatorial quadrant which aided astronomical observations. First to observe and record the existence of sun spots. Proposed the first concepts of evolution in rudimentary form. Hooke was Britain's first professional experimental scientist.Invented the first western-world arithmetic machine. Invented an air gun.
Father of modern philosophy and father of Francine Descartes; Rene Descartes was born in the small town of La Haye located in the south of France on March 31st, 1956. Rene Descartes belonged to an aristocratic family. He was the son of a council member in the provincial parliament who was named Joachim Descartes and his mother was Jeanne Brochard who unfortunately missed his success because she died while in labor with another son in the year 1957. Descartes had a total of four siblings: Pierre Descartes (brother), Jeanne Descartes (sister), Joachim Descartes (half-brother), and Anne Descartes (half-sister). His maternal grandmother, Jeanne Sain because of the loss of his mother, raised him and Rene Descartes grew up to be a well-known French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher.