Robert Hooke (1635.7.18-1703.3.3) was born on July 18, 1635, in Freischwart, on the Isle of Wight in southern England. His father was a parish priest. From an early age, Hooke was frail, eccentric but ingenious, and loved to play with machinery. He made wooden clocks and small battleships that could fire guns. At the age of ten, Hooke developed a strong interest in mechanics and laid a good foundation for future development in experimental physics. After the death of Hooke's father in 1648, his family fell into poverty. At the age of thirteen, Hooke was sent to an oil painter's house in London as an apprentice, and later became the lead singer of a church choir and a servant of a wealthy man. With the enthusiastic help of the headmaster of Westminster School, Hooke completed his secondary school courses. In 1653, Hooke entered Riall College, Oxford University as a working student. Here he met some talented scientific people. Most of these people later became the backbone of the Royal Society. At this time, Hooke was enthusiastic about participating in the activity groups of doctors and scholars, and showed a unique experimental talent. In 1655, Hooke became an assistant to Willis (1621-1675, an English medical scientist, brain and neurologist) at Oxford University, and was also recommended to work in Boyle's laboratory. Due to his experimental talents, in 1662 he was appointed as the experimental director of the Royal Society, arranging three or four experiments for each meeting. In 1663 he received a master's degree. In the same year, he was elected as a full member of the Royal Society, and also served as the society's showroom administrator and librarian. In 1665, Hooke was appointed professor of geometry and geology at Glasheam College, and engaged in astronomical observation. After the Great Fire of London in 1666, he served as a surveyor and the inspector of the city of London, and participated in the reconstruction of London. From 1677 to 1683, he served as secretary of the Royal Society and was responsible for publishing the journal of the Royal Society. The working conditions of the society allowed him to make his own contributions at the forefront of the natural sciences of the time (such as mechanical instrument modification, elasticity, gravity, optics, and even biology, architecture, chemistry, geology, etc.). In 1676, Hooke published the famous law of elasticity. On March 3, 1703, Hooke died in London at the age of 68.

Hooke loved science and dedicated his life to it. He studied a wide range of fields, such as architecture, fossils, meteorology, etc., and he dabbled and contributed. But as a scientist, Hooke still lacks the proficiency and strong mathematical and logical reasoning skills as a weapon for research and thinking, so it is not easy to analyze and solve problems thoroughly from the combination of theory and practice.This is also the weakness of Hooke compared with Newton and Huygens¡£

Comments: Hooke was one of the most outstanding British scientists of the 17th century. He made great achievements in mechanics, optics, astronomy and many other fields.