Hooke's Biography

Robert Hooke was born in 1635, at Freshwater, on the Isle of Wight. He made many contributions to the sciences, particularly Hooke's Law of Simple Harmonic Motion. This law is an approximation that states "the extension of a spring is in direct proportion with the load added to it as long as this load does not exceed the elastic limit."

Objects that quickly regain their original shape after being deformed by a force, with the molecules or atoms of their material returning to the initial state of stable equilibrium, often obey Hooke's law. Rubber is generally regarded as a "non-hookean" material because its elasticity is sensitive to temperature and loading rate. Hooke also conducted a great deal of research on pendulums and clockwork.