Everything about Isaac Beeckman totally explained
Isaac Beeckman (
December 10 1588 -
May 19 1637) was a
Dutch philosopher and
scientist.
Beeckman was born in
Middelburg. He studied
literature and
philosophy in
Leiden and graduated in 1618 in
medicine from
Caen. After a short time working for his father's business, making candles and water conduits, he became an assistant
rector in
Utrecht and later in
Rotterdam. In
1627 he became
rector of the Latin school in
Dordrecht. He died at the age of 48 in
Dordrecht.
Beeckman was a
student of
Simon Stevin. He was a teacher to
Johan de Witt and was friendly with
René Descartes, who dedicated one of his first
tractatus to him, the
Compendium Musicae. Later in life they fell out over a dispute concerning whether Beeckman had helped
Descartes with some of his mathematical discoveries. In his time, he was considered to be one of the most educated men in Europe.
Beeckman didn't publish his ideas, but he'd influenced many scientists of his time. Contempories mention his ideas. After his death, most of these accredited ideas could be read in his diary called
Journaal. Rejecting
Aristotle, Beeckman developed, independent of
Sebastien Basson, the concept that matter is composed of
atoms. Beeckman is mentioned to be one of the first persons describing
inertia correctly, however he also assumes that a constant circular velocity is conserved. Furthermore, Beeckman had shown that the
fundamental frequency of a vibrating
string is proportional to the the reciprocal of the length of the string. In the analysis of the functioning of a
pump he theorized that air pressure is the cause and not the then popular theory of
horror vacui.
Sources and literature
-
- K. van Berkel. 1983. Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637) en de mechanisering van het wereldbeeld. Amsterdam. (An English edition is forthcoming.)
Further Information
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