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For the ocean liner, see MS Christiaan Huygens.

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Christiaan Huygens FRS
Huygens by Caspar Netscher (1671), Museum Boerhaave, Leiden^[1]
Born	(1629-04-14)14 April 1629 The Hague, Dutch Republic
Died	8 July 1695(1695-07-08) (aged 66) The Hague, Dutch Republic
Alma mater	University of Leiden University of Angers
Known for	\n List \n Aerial telescope Balance spring Birefringence Centrifugal force Centripetal force Collision formulae Discovery of Titan Explanation of Saturn's rings Evolute Gambler's ruin Huygens's engine Huygenian eyepiece Huygens\u2013Fresnel principle Huygens's lemniscate Huygens\u2013Steiner theorem Huygens's tritone Involute Injection locking Repetition pitch Magic lantern Pendulum clock Problem of points Tautochrone curve Tractrix Wave theory 31 equal temperament musical tuning \n
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics Physics Astronomy Mechanics Horology
Institutions	Royal Society of London French Academy of Sciences
Academic advisors	Frans van Schooten
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Signature

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v t e

Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, FRS (/\u02c8ha\u026a\u0261\u0259nz/ HY-g\u0259nz,^[2] US also /\u02c8h\u0254\u026a\u0261\u0259nz/ HOY-g\u0259nz;^[3] Dutch: [\u02c8kr\u026astija\u02d0n \u02c8\u0266\u0153y\u0263\u0259(n)s] ^\u24d8; also spelled Huyghens; Latin: Hugenius; 14 April 1629 \u2013 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution.^[4]^[5] In physics, Huygens made seminal contributions to optics and mechanics, while as an astronomer he studied the rings of Saturn and discovered its largest moon, Titan. As an engineer and inventor, he improved the design of telescopes and invented the pendulum clock, the most accurate timekeeper for almost 300 years. A talented mathematician and physicist, his works contain the first idealization of a physical problem by a set of mathematical parameters, and the first mathematical and mechanistic explanation of an unobservable physical phenomenon.^[6]^[7]\n

Huygens first identified the correct laws of elastic collision in his work De Motu Corporum ex Percussione, completed in 1656 but published posthumously in 1703.^[8] In 1659, Huygens derived geometrically the formula in classical mechanics for the centrifugal force in his work De vi Centrifuga, a decade before Isaac Newton.^[9] In optics, he is best known for his wave theory of light, which he described in his Trait\u00e9 de la Lumi\u00e8re (1690). His theory of light was initially rejected in favour of Newton's corpuscular theory of light, until Augustin-Jean Fresnel adapted Huygens's principle to give a complete explanation of the rectilinear propagation and diffraction effects of light in 1821. Today this principle is known as the Huygens\u2013Fresnel principle.\n

Huygens invented the pendulum clock in 1657, which he patented the same year. His horological research resulted in an extensive analysis of the pendulum in Horologium Oscillatorium (1673), regarded as one of the most important 17th century works on mechanics.^[6] While it contains descriptions of clock designs, most of the book is an analysis of pendular motion and a theory of curves. In 1655, Huygens began grinding lenses with his brother Constantijn to build refracting telescopes. He discovered Saturn's biggest moon, Titan, and was the first to explain Saturn's strange appearance as due to \"a thin, flat ring, nowhere touching, and inclined to the ecliptic.\"^[10] In 1662, he developed what is now called the Huygenian eyepiece, a telescope with two lenses to diminish the amount of dispersion.^[11]\n

As a mathematician, Huygens developed the theory of evolutes and wrote on games of chance and the problem of points in Van Rekeningh in Spelen van Gluck, which Frans van Schooten translated and published as De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae (1657).^[12] The use of expected values by Huygens and others would later inspire Jacob Bernoulli's work on probability theory.^[13]^[14]\n

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v t e Christiaan Huygens
Published works	\n Theoremata de Quadratura Hyperboles, Ellipsis et Circuli (1651) \n De Circuli Magnitudine Inventa (1654) \n De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae (1657) \n Systema Saturnium (1659) \n Horologium Oscillatorium (1673) \n Trait\u00e9 de la Lumi\u00e9re (1692) \n Cosmotheoros (1698) \n
Discoveries and inventions	\n Huygens' law of the pendulum \n Huygens' lemniscate \n Huygens-Fresnel principle \n Huygens' tritone \n Huygens\u2013Steiner theorem \n
Recognitions	\n 2801 Huygens \n Cassini\u2013Huygens\n Huygens probe \n Mons Huygens \n MS Christiaan Huygens \n Huygens (crater) \n Huygens-Fokker Foundation \n Huygens Gap \n Huygens Ringlet \n Horologium (constellation) \n Prix Descartes-Huygens \n
Related people	\n Huygens family \n Galileo Galilei \n Ren\u00e9 Descartes \n Salomon Coster \n Antonie van Leeuwenhoek \n Baruch Spinoza \n Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz \n Isaac Newton \n Robert Hooke \n Denis Papin \n Augustin-Jean Fresnel \n Thomas Young \n
\n $\"\"$ Wikiquote \n $\"\"$ Wikisource texts \n

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Biography

Student years

Early correspondence

Scientific debut

France

Final years

Mathematics

Published works

Theoremata de Quadratura

De Circuli Magnitudine Inventa

De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae

Unpublished work

Natural philosophy

Laws of motion, impact, and gravitation

Elastic collisions

Centrifugal force

Gravitation

Horology

Pendulum clock

Horologium Oscillatorium

Balance spring watch

Optics

Dioptrics

Lenses

Trait\u00e9 de la Lumi\u00e8re

Astronomy

Systema Saturnium

Planetarium

Cosmotheoros

Legacy

Mathematics and physics

Later influence

Portraits

Commemorations

Works

See also

Concepts

People

Technology

References

Further reading

External links

Primary sources, translations

Museums

Other

Christiaan Huygens

Talks

3 May, 1661