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Christiaan Huygens

A portrait of Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch mathematician and astronomer from the 17th century, wearing a black coat with a white lace collar and long, curly hair.

Dutch mathematician and astronomer (1629–1695) who built the first practical pendulum clock in 1656 and proposed the balance spring for portable timekeepers in 1675. His Horologium Oscillatorium set the theoretical agenda for precision timekeeping for two centuries and contributed the cycloidal pendulum, the conservation of momentum in collisions, and an early wave theory of light.

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