Willem 's Gravesande

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Willem 's Gravesande
Willem Jacob 's Gravesande (1688-1742)
Willem Jacob 's Gravesande (1688-1742)
Born September 26, 1688
's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Died February 28, 1742
Leiden, Netherlands
Residence Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands
Nationality Flag of the Netherlands Dutch
Fields Philosopher and mathematician
Institutions Universiteit Leiden
Alma mater Universiteit Leiden
Doctoral advisor John Theophilus Desaguliers
Herman Boerhaave
Doctoral students Pieter van Musschenbroek
Known for Experimental proof of E_k = \begin{matrix} \frac{1}{2} \end{matrix} mv^2
Influences Isaac Newton
Influenced Émilie du Châtelet

Willem Jacob 's Gravesande (September 26, 1688February 28, 1742) was a Dutch philosopher and mathematician. Born in 's-Hertogenbosch, he studied law in Leiden, and wrote a thesis on suicide. He was praised by one of the Bernoulli brothers (?), when he published his book Essai de perspective. In 1715 he visited London and King George I. He became a member of the Royal Society. In 1717 he became professor in physics and astronomy in Leiden, and introduced the works of his friend Newton in the Netherlands. He opposed against fatalists like Hobbes and Spinoza. In 1724 Peter the Great offered him a job in Saint Petersburg, but Willem Jacob did not accept.

His main work is Physices elementa mathematica, experimentis confirmata, sive introductio ad philosophiam Newtonianam or Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy, Confirm'd by Experiments (Leiden 1720), in which he laid the foundations for teaching physics. Voltaire and Albrecht von Haller were in his audience, Frederic the Great invited him in 1737 to come to Berlin.

His chief contribution to physics involved an experiment in which brass balls were dropped with varying velocity onto a soft clay surface. His results were that a ball with twice the velocity of another would leave an indentation four times as deep, that three times the velocity yielded nine times the depth, and so on. He shared these results with Émilie du Châtelet, who subsequently corrected Newton's formula E = mv to E = mv2. (Note that though we now add a factor of 1/2 to this formula to make it work with coherent systems of units, the formula as expressed is correct if you choose units to fit it.)

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[edit] References

  • A.R. Hall, 's Gravesande, Willem Jacob, in Dictionary of scientific biography, vol. V; New York, 1972, p,. 509-11.
  • C. de Pater, Experimental Physics, Leiden university in the seventeenth century. An exchange of learning, Leiden, 1975, p. 308-327.
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