Robert Hooke, (born July 18, 1635, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Eng.

died March 3, 1703, London), English physicist who discovered the law of elasticity, known as Hooke s law, and who did research in a remarkable variety of fields. In 1655 Hooke was employed by Robert Boyle to construct the Boylean air pump. Fi ve years later, Hooke discovered his law of elasticity, which states that the st retching of a solid body (e.g., metal, wood) is proportional to the force applie d to it. The law laid the basis for studies of stress and strain and for underst anding of elastic materials. He applied these studies in his designs for the bal ance springs of watches. In 1662 he was appointed curator of experiments to the Royal Society of London and was elected a fellow the following year. One of the first men to build a Gregorian reflecting telescope, Hooke discovered the fifth star in the Trapezium, an asterism in the constellation Orion, in 166 4 and first suggested that Jupiter rotates on its axis. His detailed sketches of Mars were used in the 19th century to determine that planet s rate of rotation. I n 1665 he was appointed professor of geometry in Gresham College. In Micrographi a (1665; Small Drawings ) he included his studies and illustrations of the crystal structure of snowflakes, discussed the possibility of manufacturing artificial f ibres by a process similar to the spinning of the silkworm, and first used the w ord cell to name the microscopic honeycomb cavities in cork. His studies of micr oscopic fossils led him to become one of the first proponents of a theory of evo lution. He suggested that the force of gravity could be measured by utilizing the motion of a pendulum (1666) and attempted to show that Earth and the Moon follow an el liptical path around the Sun. In 1672 he discovered the phenomenon of diffractio n (the bending of light rays around corners); to explain it, he offered the wave theory of light. He stated the inverse square law to describe planetary motions in 1678, a law that Newton later used in modified form. Hooke complained that h e was not given sufficient credit for the law and became involved in bitter cont roversy with Newton. Hooke was the first man to state in general that all matter expands when heated and that air is made up of particles separated from each ot her by relatively large distances.