Robert Hooke
1635 – 1703
Elasticity's founder: as the extension, so the force.
A polymath of the early Royal Society, Hooke gave us the law of elasticity in 1678 — as the extension, so the force — the foundation of all of strength of materials. He also coined the word 'cell' and did pioneering work in microscopy and astronomy.
Famously prickly and in lifelong rivalry with Newton, Hooke nonetheless supplied the linear spring relation behind the spring, beam, and stress calculators here.
Portrait: a stylized blueprint-line rendering, not a photograph.
Contributions in the toolbox
- 1678
'Ut tensio, sic vis' — the linear spring law published.
→ Coil Spring Rate - 1678
Linear elasticity — 'ut tensio, sic vis'.
→ Axial Stress & Strain - 1678
The linear spring — the oscillator's restoring force.
→ Natural Frequency (Spring–Mass)