Unrolling Time
Christiaan Huygens and the Mathematization of Nature

A case study of the interrelationship between mathematics and physics during the Scientific Revolution.

Joella G. Yoder (Author)

9780521341400, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 February 1989

256 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.458 kg

"...Yoder has written a little gem of modern history of science at its scholarly best...it deserves to be read outside the confines of that discipline." Contemporary Physics

This case study examines the interrelationship between mathematics and physics in the work of one of the major figures of the Scientific Revolution: the Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, Christian Huygens (1629–1695). Joella Yoder details the creative interaction that led Huygens to invent a pendulum clock that theoretically beat absolutely uniform time, to measure the constant of gravitational acceleration, to analyze centrifugal force, and to create the mathematical theory of evolutes. In the second half of the book, Dr Yoder places Huygens's work in the context of his time by examining his relationship with other scientists and the priority disputes that sometimes motivated his research. The role of evolutes in the history of mathematics is analyzed; the reception of Huygens's masterpiece, the Horologium Oscillatorium of 1673, is described; and finally, the part that Christian Huygens played in the rise of applied mathematics is addressed.

Preface
1. Introduction
2. Accelerated motion: gravity
3. Accelerated motion: curvilinear fall
4. Evolutes
5. Curvature
6. Rectification
7. Diversions
8. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]