Work and Legacy
Beeckman did not publish his ideas, but he had influenced many scientists of his time. Since the beginning of his studies he did keep an extensive journal ("Journaal" in Dutch), from which his brother published some of his observations in 1644. However, this went basically unnoticed. The scope of Beeckman's ideas did not come to life until the science historian Cornelis de Waard rediscovered the Journaal in 1905, and published it in volumes between 1939 and 1953.
- Rejecting Aristotle, Beeckman developed, independent of Sebastian Basso, the concept that matter is composed of atoms.
- Beeckman is mentioned to be one of the first persons describing inertia correctly, however he also assumes that a constant circular velocity is conserved.
- Beeckman had shown that the fundamental frequency of a vibrating string is proportional to the reciprocal of the length of the string.
- In the analysis of the functioning of a pump he theorized correctly that air pressure is the cause and not the then popular theory of horror vacui.
In his time, he was considered to be one of the most educated men in Europe. For example, he had deeply impressed Mersenne, despite their opposing religious views, as well as Gassendi, who apparently had been turned by Beeckman to the philosophy of Epicurus (atomism). The latter even proclaimed, in a 1629 letter to Peiresc, that Beeckman was the greatest philosopher he had ever met.
Read more about this topic: Isaac Beeckman
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