Selected 17^th Century Scientists

© 2011, Martin Rinehart

We have selected five scientists for this website. While any selection of the "most important" is subject to great debate, we only claim that these five are all very important. They all worked in the related sciences of mathematics, physics and astronomy.

One of the difficulties you face in dealing with historical figures is that lives don't often neatly fall into a single century. To argue by the bookends that these men are all correctly known as "17^th century" scientists, we point out two facts. While Galileo was an important scientist in the late 16^th century, he is best known for his telescope (1609) and the discoveries he made using it. Newton worked well into the 18 ^th century, but his classic Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, explaining the calculus and his three laws of what is now known as physics, was published in 1687.

Our five 17th century scientists are:
Galileo Galilei	Johannes Kepler	René Descartes	Pierre de Fermat	Sir Isaac Newton

First, we locate these five in time.		Then, we locate them in space.

1. Locating Our Scientists
   1. In Time
   2. In Space
2. Details About Our Scientists
   1. Galileo Newton's words
   2. Kepler Newton's words
   3. Descartes Newton's words
   4. Fermat Newton's words
   5. Newton about himself

Sample website in Frontend Engineering, Volume I, Pro HTML.