Willebrord Snellius (born Willebrord Snel van Royen) (13 June 158030 October 1626) was a Dutch
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
and
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
, Snell. His name is usually associated with the law of
refraction
In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenome ...
of light known as
Snell's law.
The
lunar crater
Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated.
History
The wor ...
Snellius is named after Willebrord Snellius. The Royal Netherlands Navy has named three survey ships after Snellius, including a
currently-serving vessel.
Biography
Willebrord Snellius was born in
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
,
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. In 1613 he succeeded his father,
Rudolph Snel van Royen
Rudolph Snel van Royen (5 October 1546 – 2 March 1613), Latinized as Rudolph Snellius, was a Dutch linguist and mathematician who held appointments at the University of Marburg and the University of Leiden. Snellius was an influence on some ...
(1546–1613) as professor of
mathematics at the
University of Leiden
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...
.
Snellius' triangulation
In 1615, Snellius, after the work of
Eratosthenes in
Ptolemaic Egypt in the 3rd century BC, probably was the first to try to do a large-scale experiment to measure the
circumference of the earth using
triangulation.
He was helped in his measurements by two of his students, the Austrian barons Erasmus and Casparus Sterrenberg. In several cities he also received support of friends among the city leaders (''
regenten
In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the regenten (the Dutch plural for ''regent'') were the rulers of the Dutch Republic, the leaders of the Dutch cities or the heads of organisations (e.g. "regent of an orphanage"). Though not formally a hered ...
''). In his work ''The terrae Ambitus vera quantitate'' (1617) under the author's name ("The Dutch Eratosthenes") Snellius describes the methods he used. He came up with an estimate of 28,500 Rhineland
rods – in modern units 107.37
km for one degree of
latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
. 360 times 107.37 then gives a
circumference of the Earth of 38,653 km. The actual circumference is 40,075 kilometers, so Snellius underestimated the circumference of the earth by 3.5%.
Snellius came to his result by calculating the distances between a number of high points in the plain west and southwest of the Netherlands using
triangulation. In order to carry out these measurements accurately Snellius had a large
quadrant built, with which he could accurately measure angles in tenths of degrees. This quadrant can still be seen in the
Museum Boerhaave
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave is a museum of the history of science and medicine, based in Leiden, Netherlands. The museum hosts a collection of historical scientific instruments from all disciplines, but mainly from medicine, physics, and astronomy.
Th ...
in Leiden. In a network of fourteen cities a total of 53 triangulation measurements were made. In his calculations Snellius made use of a solution for what is now called the
Snellius–Pothenot problem
The Snellius–Pothenot problem is a problem in planar surveying. Given three known points A, B and C, an observer at an unknown point P observes that the segment AC subtends an angle \alpha and the segment CB subtends an angle \beta; the problem ...
.
By necessity Snellius's high points were nearly all
church spires. There were hardly any other tall buildings at that time in the west of the Netherlands. More or less ordered from north to south and/or in successive order of measuring, Snellius used a network of fourteen measure points:
Alkmaar :
St. Laurenskerk;
Haarlem :
Sint-Bavokerk
The Grote Kerk or St.-Bavokerk is a Reformed Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square ( Grote Markt) in the Dutch city of Haarlem. Another Haarlem church called the Cathedral of Saint Bavo now serves ...
;
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
: a then new part (built in 1599) of the
City wall
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...
s;
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
:
Sint-Jacobskerk;
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
:
Oude Kerk;
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...
:
Cathedral of Utrecht
St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht, or Dom Church ( nl, Domkerk), is a Gothic church dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, which was the cathedral of the Diocese of Utrecht during the Middle Ages. It is the country's only pre-Reformation cathedral, ...
;
Zaltbommel
Zaltbommel (), also known, historically and colloquially, as Bommel, is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands.
History
The city of Zaltbommel
The town of Zaltbommel was first mentioned as "Bomela" in the year 850. Zaltbommel received ...
:
Sint-Maartenskerk;
Gouda :
Sint Janskerk;
Oudewater
Oudewater () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands.
History
The origin of the town of Oudewater is obscure and no information has been found concerning the first settlement of citizens. It is also difficult to recover the name of Oud ...
:
Sint-Michaelskerk;
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
:
Sint-Laurenskerk;
Dordrecht
Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...
:
Grote Kerk;
Willemstad
Willemstad ( , ; ; en, William Town, italic=yes) is the capital city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was the capital of the Netherlands Antilles pr ...
:
Koepelkerk;
Bergen-op-Zoom
Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands.
Etymology
The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soi ...
:
Gertrudiskerk;
Breda :
Grote Kerk
The actual distance between the two church spires in
Alkmaar and
Breda, two places nearly on the same
meridian
Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to
Science
* Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon
* ...
, is 116.1 kilometers. The difference in latitude between Alkmaar (52° 37' 57" N) and Breda (51° 35' 20" N) is 1.0436 degree. Assuming Snellius corrected for this he must have calculated a distance of 107.37 * 1.0436 = 112.05 kilometers between the Sint-Laurenskerk in Alkmaar and the Grote Kerk in Breda.
Mathematics and physics
Snellius was also a distinguished mathematician, producing a new method for calculating
π—the first such improvement since ancient times. He rediscovered the
law of refraction
Snell's law (also known as Snell–Descartes law and ibn-Sahl law and the law of refraction) is a formula used to describe the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction, when referring to light or other waves passing through ...
in 1621.
Other works
In addition to the ''Eratosthenes Batavus'', he published (1621), and ''Tiphys Batavus'' (1624). He also edited ''Coeli et siderum in eo errantium observationes Hassiacae'' (1618), containing the astronomical observations of Landgrave
William IV of Hesse. A work on
trigonometry
Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies ...
(''Doctrina triangulorum'') authored by Snellius was published a year after his death.
Death
Snellius died in Leiden in October 1626, at the age of 46 from an illness diagnosed as
colic
Colic or cholic () is a form of pain that starts and stops abruptly. It occurs due to muscular contractions of a hollow tube (small and large intestine, gall bladder, ureter, etc.) in an attempt to relieve an obstruction by forcing content out. ...
.
[De Wreede, L. C. (2007). Willebrord Snellius (1580–1626): a humanist reshaping the mathematical sciences. Utrecht University] His grave can be seen in the
Pieterskerk, Leiden
The Pieterskerk is a late- Gothic Dutch Protestant church in Leiden dedicated to Saint Peter. It is known today as the church of the Pilgrim Fathers, where the pastor John Robinson was buried. It is also the burial place of the scientist Wil ...
.
Honours
Snellius Glacier
Snellius Glacier ( bg, ледник Снелий, lednik Snellius, ) is the glacier extending 7 km in west–east direction and 3 km in south–north direction on the north coast of Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarc ...
in
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
is named after Willebrord Snellius.
Works
*
*
*
*
Notes
See also
*
Snell–Huygens refinement
References
Willebrord Snellius (1580-1626): a humanist reshaping the mathematical sciences, thesis of Liesbeth de Wreede, Dissertation Utrecht 2007* N. Haasbroek:
Gemma Frisius, Tycho Brahe and Snellius and their triangulations'. Delft 1968.
*
*
*
*
*
Klaus Hentschel
Klaus Hentschel (born 4 April 1961) is a German physicist, historian of science and Professor and head of the History of Science and Technology section in the History Department of the University of Stuttgart. He is known for his contributions in ...
: ''Das Brechungsgesetz in der Fassung von Snellius. Rekonstruktion seines Entdeckungspfades und eine Übersetzung seines lateinischen Manuskriptes sowie ergänzender Dokumente.'' Archive for History of Exact Sciences 55,4 (2001), doi:10.1007/s004070000026.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Snellius, Willebrord
17th-century Dutch mathematicians
1580 births
1626 deaths
Astronomy in the Dutch Republic
Burials at Pieterskerk, Leiden
17th-century Dutch astronomers
Geodesists
Leiden University faculty
Mathematics educators