Physicist and naturalist — Robert Hooke (Freshwater, 1635 – London, 1703) was a versatile English scientist, a central figure at the Royal Society, of which he was Curator of Experiments. A tireless experimenter, he worked on elasticity, mechanics, optics, astronomy and microscopy. He is famous for the law that bears his name, according to which the elastic deformation of a body is proportional to the applied force: a principle underlying the study of springs and the strength of materials. With his masterwork Micrographia (1665) he revealed for the first time the world seen under the microscope and coined the term ‘cell’. He was also an architect and contributed to the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666.
Trivia
Hooke had a bitter rivalry with Isaac Newton, who claimed priority over the inverse-square law of gravitation; it is said that Newton, once he became President of the Royal Society, did nothing to prevent the disappearance of the only portrait of Hooke, of which no certain image survives today.
Theories and contributions
- Hooke’s law — The elastic restoring force is proportional to the extension: , with the spring constant.
- Micrographia and the ‘cell’ — Microscope observations collected in Micrographia (1665); observing cork, he introduced the term ‘cell’.
Appears in chapters
Linked atoms
6 linked atoms.
02 Forze e leggi di Newton
- Forces at a distance and contact forces
- Forces that admit potential energy
- Newton’s Principia
- The second law as a promise