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Edmond Halley

English astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, meteorologist and physicist (1656-1742) · United Kingdom · Scientists · Died at 85

Edmond Halley is read about 429 times a day, in 92 languages.

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He predicted a comet's return sixteen years after his own death, and got it right - the first proof that something beyond the planets could orbit the Sun on a schedule.

ScientistsAcademicMathematicsAstronomyPhilosophyPhysicsEarly Modern Era

A life in dates

1742Died25 January 17421705“Next to Ticho, came the Sagacious Kepler.”In their wordsby Edmond Halley, at Oxford; and Fellow of the . Translated from the Original, printed at Oxford. London: Printed for , next to the

“Wherefore (following the Steps of so Great a Man) I have attempted to bring the same Method to Arithmetical Calculation; and that with desired Success.”In their wordsby Edmond Halley, at Oxford; and Fellow of the . Translated from the Original, printed at Oxford. London: Printed for , next to the

“A General Table for Calculating the Motions of Comets in a Parabolical Orbit.”In their wordsSee Table: pp. 8-11.

“The Construction and Use of the general Table.”In their wordsSee Figure, Instructions and Use: pp. 12-14.

“After this manner... the Astronomical Reader may examine these Numbers, which I have calculated, with all imaginable Care, from the Observations I have met with.”In their wordsby Edmond Halley, at Oxford; and Fellow of the . Translated from the Original, printed at Oxford. London: Printed for , next to the

1656Born8 November 1656

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

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In their own words 9

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Edmond Halley
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9 statements, newest first

  1. So that 'tis to the Greeks themselves as the Inventors (and especially to the Great Hipparchus) that we owe this Astronomy, which is now improv'd to such a Heigth.

    1705, by Edmond Halley, at Oxford; and Fellow of the . Translated from the Original, printed at Oxford. London: Printed for , next to the, Own words

  2. Next to Ticho, came the Sagacious Kepler.

    1705, by Edmond Halley, at Oxford; and Fellow of the . Translated from the Original, printed at Oxford. London: Printed for , next to the, Own words

  3. Wherefore (following the Steps of so Great a Man) I have attempted to bring the same Method to Arithmetical Calculation; and that with desired Success.

    1705, by Edmond Halley, at Oxford; and Fellow of the . Translated from the Original, printed at Oxford. London: Printed for , next to the, Own words

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Awards

Fellow of the Royal Society

In their orbit

Spouse: Mary Tooke

About this person

Halley built an observatory on Saint Helena in 1676-77 and catalogued the southern stars, recording Mercury's transit across the Sun and realizing Venus could be used to measure the solar system's true scale. Back in England, made a fellow of the Royal Society with the king's help, he bankrolled and pushed Isaac Newton to publish the Principia Mathematica in 1687. From his observations in September 1682, Halley used Newton's gravity to calculate that the comet would return every 75 or 76 years - he published the periodicity in 1705. The comet came back on schedule in 1758, sixteen years after his death, and took his name. He spent 1698 onward making sailing expeditions to chart terrestrial magnetism, and in 1718 discovered that the "fixed stars" actually move.

Country
United Kingdom
Category
Scientists
Type
Scientist
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1656 to 1742 · aged 85

Scientists from the United Kingdom 6

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