Tallinn Hiiu School

Famous scientists

  

 Liis Madik
Őp. Ester Kaidro
Tallinn, 2001

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born in Paris, in August 26th 1743.He educated at the Collage Mazarin. In 1768 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. His theories became known through his book Traité Élementaire de Chimie what was published in 1789. Lavoisier completed the work of Priestley and Cavendish. He developed the basis of modern thermodynamics. Lavoisier was secretary and treasurer of a committee appointed in 1790 to determine the standard weights and measures in France. He took part in several state committees on agriculture making him suspicious to the authorities leading the French Revolution.

Judged by a revolutionary court, Lavoisier was convicted to death in the guillotine, in Paris. He also wrote Sur la combustion en general (On Combustion, 1777) and Considerations sur la nature des acids (Considerations on the Nature of Acids, 1778).

Michael Faraday was born on 22nd September 1791. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a London bookbinder. Reading many of the books in the shop, Faraday became fascinated by science, and wrote to Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution asking for a job. Faraday built two devices to produce what he called electromagnetic rotation: that is a continuous circular motion from the circular magnetic force around a wire. In 1831, he began his great series of experiments in which he discovered electromagnetic induction. These experiments form the basis of modern electromagnetic technology.

On 29th August 1831, Faraday made one of his greatest discoveries - electromagnetic induction. In a second series of experiments in September he discovered magneto-electric induction. In 1832 he proved that the electricity induced from a magnet, voltaic electricity produced by a battery, and static electricity were all the same. In 1865, Maxwell proved mathematically that electromagnetic phenomena are propagated as waves through space with the velocity of light, thereby laying the foundation of radio communication confirmed experimentally in 1888 by Hertz and developed for practical use by Guglielmo Marconi at the turn of the century. Faraday ended his connection with the Royal Institution after over 50 years of service. He died at his house at Hampton Court on 25th August 1867.

Descartes, René was born in La Haye near Tours in France on March 31 in 1596. He was famous French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician. At the age of eight he went in the Jesuit school in Anjou, where he remained for eight years. Descartes received instruction in mathematics and in Scholastic philosophy. Upon graduation from school, he studied law at the University of Poitiers, graduating in 1616. He never practiced law, however; in 1618 he entered the service of Prince Maurice of Nassau to make a military career. In succeeding years Descartes served in other armies, but his attention had already been attracted to the problems of mathematics and philosophy to which he was to devote the rest of his life.

Descartes's discovered the fundamental law of reflection: that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. His essay on optics was the first published statement of this law.Descartes's treatment of light as a type of pressure in a solid medium paved the way for the undulatory theory of light. Descartes was the first to use the last letters of the alphabet to designate unknown quantities and the first letters to designate known ones. He also invented the method of 0indices (as in x2) to express the powers of numbers. He died in winter 1650 in Sweden.

Sir. Isaac Newton was born in 4th of January in 1643 at Woolsthorpe England. He was a famous mathematician and physicist, considered one of the greatest scientists in history. His discoveries and theories laid the foundation for much of the progress in science since his time. He solved the mysteries of light and optics, formulated the three laws of motion, and derived from them the law of universal gravitation. He went to the grammar school in Grantham. Later, in the summer of 1661, he was sent to Trinity College, at the University of Cambridge.

Newton received his bachelor's degree in 1665. In mathematics, he generalized the methods how to draw tangents to curves. In autumn 1666 he developed a kind of mathematics – calculus, it carried modern mathematics above the level on Greek geometry. He was also interested in optics – he discovered light dispersion. But surely his most important discovery was the gravitational law. He died in the 31.st of March in 1727 in Kensington.

Used literature

http://nautilus.fis.uc.pt/st2.5/scenes-e/biog/b0002.html
encyclopedia Encarta
EE VI
http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/Nomenclature/Binary-Comm-FormulatoName.html