"The lasting importance of Horologium Oscillatorium stemmed more from its applied mathematics than from its pure mathematics. The next generation of mathematicians spent a great deal of time trying to find curves that satisfied specific physical properties. What other curve, if any, is a tautochrone? What curve does a hanging chain delineate? What shape does a sail take? What is the curve of fastest descent? These were the test cases for the new mathematical technique Leibniz called 'calculus.'"
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Astronomers from the NetherlandsPhysicists from the NetherlandsMathematicians from the NetherlandsPeople from The Hague
Original Language: English
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Sources
Joella G. Yoder, "Christiaan Huygens, Book on the Pendulum Clock" in Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics 1640-1940 ed., Ivor Grattan-Guinness (2005)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christiaan_Huygens
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Christiaan Huygens
1629 – 1695
niederländischer Astronom, Mathematiker und Physiker
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