Rivalry of the Ages: Newton vs Robert Hooke

Hey look it's Sunday again. And Sunday in Quizzing Palace is a break from Quiz. It's time for some stories now. History is filled with wars and fights among nations, among kings, empires, but my story today is about a fight among the intellectuals. The rivalry between two of the most learned men in the world. Today, we will revisit the rivalry of Sir Isaac Newton vs Robert Hooke.

Little Introduction

Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton

While Isaac Newton needs no introduction, he is considered arguably the most influential physicists of the world. It was his revolutionary Laws of Motion and Gravitation which covers almost half of the physics we study. Not only this, but he also worked on Optics, Telescopes as well as a prism, with credit for independently developing Calculus too. (I know high school grads would be cursing him)

Portrait of Robert Hooke

One more person who would have cursed Newton was Robert Hooke, he was himself a polymath, from his Hooke's Law of elasticity to discovering Cells with his own microscope. His scope of work and achievements were certainly varied. He also served as the President of the Royal Society, and it's chief curator of experiments which is where he came in contact with Newton. Quoting another great here, Neil deGrasse Tyson called Hooke ‘perhaps the most inventive person that ever lived’ (Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey). He is now very aptly called the English Da Vinci.

How the rivalry started

Both of these scientists did have a cordial relationship for the most part of Newton's initial years. They frequently exchanged letters, sharing ideas, and discussing matters of curiosity. One of the subjects which interested both of them was Astronomy and Gravity. The root cause of their rivalry was indeed this mutual interest in some matters. The first signs of conflict between these two massive egos came in 1672 when Newton submitted his first paper to the Royal Society. In the work, Newton claimed the light was a particle, contradicting Hooke’s own ideas on the matter. Hooke’s attacks were the most scathing and his position at the Royal Society meant they also carried the most humiliating weight for Newton. Although rather ironically, the light was found to be of dual nature, essentially proving both of them were correct. Correspondence between the two became increasingly acrimonious; a major rivalry had started.

Etching of cells from Cork, a famous work of Hooke

In January 1684, during a discussion on the forces that govern celestial bodies, astronomer Edmund Halley told Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren (a founding member of the Royal Society) that he believed the centripetal force between two celestial bodies was inversely proportional to the squares of the distances between them; however, he lacked proof. Hooke agreed with Halley, as he himself had suggested in his book Micrographia that celestial bodies experience mutual attractions which become stronger as the distance between them decreases. However, Hooke also claimed to have the proof that Halley sought. Wren apparently did not believe Hooke and offered to give books worth 40 shillings as a reward to whoever of the two was first to show a conclusive proof within the next two months.

Sadly, the prize was left unclaimed as Halley was occupied with domestic affairs and Hooke failed to deliver. Finally, Halley decided to visit Newton at Cambridge to see if he could provide the proof Hooke had failed to do so. Newton informed Halley that he had already calculated the values of planetary motion several years ago but seemed to have lost the papers. He at once began working on them again. Once Halley received proof of Newton’s work, he requested the Royal Society to publish Newton’s book. However, they did not have the funds to publish it because they spent their entire book budget on the unpopular History of Fish by Francis Willughby. Halley, however, was very eager to publish Newton’s work and decided to finance the work himself.

Legendary Principia Mathematica First edition

This work was the legendary Principia Mathematica. This simmering tension exploded when Newton published his Principia in 1687, containing his Law of Universal Gravitation. Newton wasn’t the first to postulate about a force holding celestial bodies in place, it was an idea the scientific community had been moving towards for years. There were many people who had intuitively hypothesized the presence of some force among two bodies. Hooke was one of the key figures behind it in the 1670s, suggesting the planets were attracted to the Sun, and that this force of attraction got stronger the closer the objects were together. Crucially, Newton was the first to create a rigorous mathematical proof for the idea, but Hooke, being at his prime years, was convinced Principia would have been impossible if he hadn’t first postulated about the attraction between celestial bodies. A bitter dispute unfolded. With allegations from Hooke and valiant defense by Newton. 

Legacy of Newton and Hooke

After the death of Hooke, Newton became his successor as the president of the Royal Society, and some say he went to great efforts to tarnish his predecessor’s reputation. The only portrait of Hooke was removed from the Royal Society during Newton’s presidency. It has been suggested this was because he’d ordered it destroyed, or intentionally left it behind when the society moved buildings. As Newton’s reputation grew, Hooke’s deteriorated. 

While the history remembers Newton as the greatest scientist ever lived (nothing to argue here) but Robert Hooke was slowly forgotten in the pages of history with these petty rivalry taking over his vast number of achievements.

Interesting to know that, most of the pictures we see of Robert Hooke on the web is also a reconstruction based on two surviving descriptions of Hooke.