Christiaan Huygens: Biography Of This 17th Century Dutch Astronomer
Modern astronomy would not be understood without the contributions of the great authors of the past, and Huygens is one of them.
We will dedicate this article to getting to know his life better through a biography of Christiaan Huygens , from his childhood and training to the great milestones of his career as a scientist. Likewise, we will discover some of the contributions that this author made during his many years as a scientist.
Christiaan Huygens was born in 1629 in The Hague, then part of the Dutch Republic As the son of a wealthy family, he did not experience any financial difficulties throughout his childhood. His father was an important diplomat, under the orders of the Dutch monarchy. In addition, he also cultivated different arts, such as writing and music. He interacted with some of the greatest intellectuals of the time.
Among his close circle were historical figures such as René Descartes, Galileo Galilei and Marin Mersenne, a sample of the distinguished and scholarly atmosphere that reigned in the house of Christiaan Huygens. As for her mother, a famous poet, she had five children, Christiaan being the second of them, and died as a result of complications during the birth of her last daughter.
The education of little Christiaan Huygens, until he was sixteen years old, took place at home. Constantinj, his father, ensured that he received an exquisite, liberal education , which included learning different languages, mathematics, history, arts, and some branches of philosophy, such as logic and rhetoric. Likewise, his physical abilities were not neglected, so he also rode horses, practiced fencing and also danced.
Some of Christiaan Huygens’ tutors were Descartes himself, who was surprised by the ease with which the student understood the complex concepts of geometry, and also Jan Jansz de Jonge Stampioen, one of the most brilliant Dutch mathematicians.
From the age of sixteen, his training continued at the University of Leiden, where he learned mathematics and law The mathematician Frans van Schooten was one of Christiaan Huygens’ tutors. After two years he moved to Orange College in Breda to complete his law studies.
After finishing his training, he carried out diplomatic work for the Duke of Nassau, Louis Henry, which allowed him to travel to different Northern European regions. However, he was not destined to follow in his father’s footsteps as a diplomat. What Christian really liked was science This was witnessed by Mersenne, who told his father that the boy had the talent of Archimedes himself for mathematics.
Christiaan Huygens corresponded as Mersenne to work together on different mathematical problems, such as those concerning the creation of suspension bridges or squaring the circle. Mersenne had proposed other objects of study that, at that time, were not of Huygens’ interest, but would be in the future. Some examples are the vibrating string, the cycloid or the gravitational constant.
By the year 1654, Christiaan decided to return to the family home in The Hague, in order to devote himself completely to the study of science Although Mersenne had already died, Christiaan Huygens continued to correspond with other authors related to him, although the wars suffered by this territory at that time sometimes made it difficult to receive the letters.
In 1655 he decided to travel to Paris to meet with some of these authors, such as Ismael Boulliau or Claude Mylon. This allowed him to establish contact, first with Pierre de Carcavi and then with Pierre de Fermat, one of the most brilliant mathematicians in history. However, they did not reach great meeting points, since Fermat was focused on theoretical issues and Huygens was looking for more practical applications in his studies.
At last, In 1651, Christiaan Huygens published what would be his first work, Theoremata of quadrature Thanks to this publication and the correction of some errors in the work of Thomas Hobbes, Huygens began to be a known name in all scientific circles in Europe.
Interest in astronomy and other sciences
Christiaan then began to be interested in the optics of spherical lenses, and this study ended up materializing in the so-called Huygenian eyepiece. This theme put him in contact with another of the great minds of his time: Baruch Spinoza. Likewise, he had great interest in the contributions to this field of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, another Dutch scientist who also studied and created lenses.
Another topic that attracted the interest of Christiaan Huygens was that of probability His work De ratiociniis in ludo aleae It focuses on the probabilistic explanations hidden behind the most popular games of chance. To create this volume, he was influenced by the work of other authors such as Girard Desargues and Blaise Pascal. Likewise, he worked on the work of John Graunt, father of demography, to mathematically capture life expectancy.
In the year 1661 the astronomical phenomenon of the solar transit of Mercury took place. Christiaan Huygens witnessed this event and debated with other authors about it. Also at that time, Huygens He even published some articles related to music, a discipline in which he also stood out, especially playing the harpsichord
The circle of authors formerly directed by Mesenne was renamed the Montmor Academy, as it was directed by Henri Louis Habert de Montmor. Christiaan Huygens was one of its most active members, and supported a schism created in this association in which experimental demonstration was sought in the sciences they practiced. This discussion led to the closure of the group.
However, His participation in the circle made him change his residence to Paris, which earned him access to the French Academy of Sciences He had the patronage of Jean-Baptiste Colbert. At the same time, he also belonged to the Royal Society of London, which demonstrates the enormous importance that this author already had at an international level.
Great contributions
In his role as an inventor, he studied how to create an engine based on the explosion of gunpowder , which although it failed to materialize as a reality, undoubtedly represented an enormous innovation for the time. Christiaan Huygens also excelled in the design and construction of complex clocks, especially pendulum clocks, which guaranteed great precision.
Regarding the field of astronomy, one of his great contributions was the study of the rings of Saturn as well as one of its moons, Titan. He was also able to make observations of the Orion Nebula. As for Mars, he was able to map some of its regions, such as the Syrtis Major plain, on the red planet.
Also was able to calculate the duration of the rotation movement of this planet , that is, the length of a day, which he estimated at 24 hours and 30 minutes, erring only by the seven more minutes that it actually has. As ahead of his time, Christiaan Huygens even wrote about the possibility of the existence of life in other places in the universe, a controversial topic due to its impact on religious beliefs reigning in times past.
For Huygens, this possibility did not represent a problem in the face of the Bible’s writings, since he stated that this option was not affirmed but was not denied either, and that if it were the case, God would have placed us at a sufficient distance to so that we could not come into contact with each other. Although he had a scientific mind, it is observed that he tried to adapt his reasoning to religious theses.
Christiaan Huygens too studied different stars and even made calculations about the distance and luminosity of some of them like Sirius, although they were not precise, since this discipline would still need many years to reach maturity.
He is also considered the first of the theoretical physicists and also the main promoter of what would later become mathematical physics as we know it today.
Last years
During his years living in Paris, Christiaan Huygens met Gottfried Leibniz , with whom he also began to correspond and tutored him in mathematical and geometric matters. Leibniz was working on a system of infinitesimal calculus, but Huygens did not seem to appreciate it.
In 1681, affected by a serious depression, he decided to return to his hometown, The Hague. He visited London shortly after, where he met Isaac Newton, one of the greatest physicists in the history of humanity.
Christiaan Huygens ended his days in The Hague, without having raised a family, in the year 1695. His body rests in an unmarked grave in the church of Saint James.
