Photo source: Wikimedia Commons, Caspar Netscher
Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was a Dutch mathematician best known for his contributions to optics, astronomy and pendulum clocks. Professor Joella Yoder said,
"[Horologium Oscillatorium] is the first modern treatise in which a physical problem is idealized by a set of parameters then analyzed mathematically. It is one of the seminal works of applied mathematics." (Christiaan Huygens: Book on the Pendulum Clock)
The rest of this post is some quotes from Huygens.
Certainty
"There are many degrees of probable, some nearer truth than others, in the determining of which lies the chief exercise of our judgement." (Cosmotheoros, 1695-1698)
"One finds in this subject a kind of demonstration which does not carry with it so high a degree of certainty as that employed in geometry; and which differs distinctly from the method employed by geometers in that they prove their propositions by well-established and incontrovertible principles, while here principles are tested by inferences which are derivable from them." (Treatise on Light, 1690)
