Christiaan Huygens
Christiaan Huygens (
listen (info • help)) (April 14, 1629–July 8, 1695) was a Dutch physicist, mathematician and astronomer, born in The Hague. He was known for his idea that light was made of waves. He discovered Saturn's largest moon Titan in 1655. He also did detailed studies on Saturn's rings, and in 1656, he discovered that they are made up of rocks. He also studied optics and pendulum clocks.
Christiaan Huygens Media
Constantijn surrounded by his five children (Christiaan, top right). Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Picture of a hanging chain (catenary) in a manuscript of Huygens
Christiaan Huygens, relief by Jean-Jacques Clérion (c. 1670)
Huygens, right of centre, from L'établissement de l'Académie des Sciences et fondation de l'observatoire, 1666 by Henri Testelin (c. 1675)
Hofwijck, Huygens's summer home; now a museum
Huygens's first publication was in the field of quadrature.
Huygens's results for the stability of a floating rectangular parallelepiped
A boating metaphor as a way to think about relative motion, simplifying the theory of colliding bodies, from Huygens's Oeuvres Complètes
Spring-driven pendulum clock, designed by Huygens and built by Salomon Coster (1657), with a copy of the Horologium Oscillatorium (1673), at Museum Boerhaave, Leiden
Diagram showing the evolute of a curve
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