Skip to content

Hooke's Law

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

This is an intermediate page for Hooke's Law.

Authored entries

Community entry

According to the Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991, Inst. of Physics Press), Hooke originally published this law in 1676. It was entitled "The True Theory of Elasticity or Springiness", and expressed as "CEIINOSSITTUU". The anagram was revealed in 1679, In "De Potentia Restitutiva, or of a Spring" as "UT TENSIO, SIC UIS" (as the extension, so the force).

This was apparently a common contemporary way of establishing priority in scientific discovery, without actually revealing what you were working on. Presumably, if it worked out, you published the unscrambled anagram and claimed priority; and if it didn't, then you just clammed up.

There are no related entries yet. You can improve the Metaweb by editing this page and creating one.