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This medal has been minted in France in 1986 to commemorate the Dutch mathematician, astronomer and inventor, Christian HUYGENS, 1629 – 1742 and the space mission Giotto in 1986.
This medal is signed by the French medalist F. MAILLART.
Christiaan Huygens, FRS (/ˈhaɪɡənz/ or
/ˈhɔɪɡənz/;
Dutch: [ˈɦœyɣə(n)s] (
listen))
(Latin: Hugenius) (14 April
1629 – 8 July 1695) was a prominent Dutch mathematician and scientist. He is known
particularly as an astronomer, physicist, probabilist and horologist.
Huygens was a leading scientist of his time. His work included
early telescopic studies of the rings of Saturn and the discovery of its moon Titan, the invention of the pendulum clock and other investigations in
timekeeping. He published major studies of mechanics and optics, and pioneered work on games of chance.
Huygens was a leading scientist of his time. His work included early telescopic studies of the rings of Saturn and the discovery of its moon Titan, the invention of the pendulum clock and other investigations in timekeeping. He published major studies of mechanics and optics, and pioneered work on games of chance.
av.
Christian Huygens
rv. The astronomic motives
size – 81 mm, (3¼”)
weight – 235.90 gr, (8.32
oz)
metal – bronze, natural patina
Scientific
debut
Huygens was often slow to publish his results and discoveries.
In the early days his mentor Frans van Schooten was cautious for the sake of
his reputation.
The first work Huygens put in print was Theoremata de
quadratura (1651) in the field of quadrature.
It included material discussed with Mersenne some years before, such as the
fallacious nature of the squaring of the circle by Grégoire de Saint-Vincent.
His preferred methods were those of Archimedes and Fermat. Quadrature was a live issue in the
1650s, and through Mylon, Huygens intervened in the discussion of the
mathematics of Thomas Hobbes.
Persisting in trying to explain the errors Hobbes had fallen into, he made an
international reputation.
Huygens studied spherical lenses from a theoretical point of
view in 1652–3, obtaining results that remained unpublished until Isaac Barrow (1669). His aim was to understand
telescopes. He began grinding his own lenses
in 1655, collaborating with his brother Constantijn. He designed in 1662 what is now called
the Huygenian eyepiece,
with two lenses, as a telescope ocular. Lenses were also a common interest
through which Huygens could meet socially in the 1660s with Baruch Spinoza, who ground them
professionally. They had rather different outlooks on science, Spinoza being
the more committed Cartesian, and some of their discussion survives in
correspondence. He encountered the work of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek,
another lens grinder, in the field of microscopy which interested his father.
Huygens wrote the first treatise on probability theory,
De ratiociniis in ludo aleae ("On Reasoning in Games of
Chance", 1657). He had been told
of recent work in the field by Fermat, Blaise Pascal and Girard Desargues two years earlier, in Paris. Frans van Schooten translated the
original Dutch manuscript "Van Rekeningh in Spelen van Geluck" into Latin
and published it in his Exercitationum mathematicarum. It deals with games of chance, in particular the problem of points. Huygens took as intuitive
his appeals to concepts of a "fair game" and equitable contract, and
used them set up a theory of expected values. In 1662 Sir Robert Moray sent Huygens John Graunt's life table, and in time Huygens and his
brother Lodewijk worked on life expectancy.
On 3 May 1661, Huygens observed the planet Mercury transit over the Sun, using the
telescope of instrument maker Richard Reeve in London, together with
astronomer Thomas Streete and
Reeve. Streete then debated the published record of the transit of Hevelius, a controversy mediated by Henry Oldenburg. Huygens passed to Hevelius a manuscript of Jeremiah Horrocks on the transit of Venus,
1639, which thereby was printed for the first time in 1662. In that
year Huygens, who played the harpsichord, took an
interest in music, and Simon Stevin's
theories on it; he showed very little concern to publish his theories on consonance, some of which were lost for
centuries. The Royal Society of London elected him a Fellow
in 1663.