Huygens Christiaan

Huy·gens

H0337200 (hī′gənz, hoi′gĕns), Christiaan 1629-1695. Dutch physicist and astronomer who was the first to examine Saturn's rings (1655), pioneered the use of pendulums in clocks (1657), and formulated Huygens' principle.

Huy·gens

(hī′gənz, hoi′gĕns), Christiaan 1629-1695. Dutch physicist and astronomer. In 1655 he discovered Saturn's rings and its fourth satellite, using a telescope he made himself. He made the first pendulum clock in 1657. Huygens also proposed that light consists of waves that vibrate up and down perpendicular to the direction in which it travels. This theory, which explained light better than Newton's theory, was made public in 1690.