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Francesco Maria Grimaldi
(2 Apr 1618 - 28 Dec 1663)
Italian physicist and mathematician who studied the diffraction of light, for which he coined the name, and provided evidence for later physicists to support the wave theory of light.
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Quotes by others about Francesco Maria Grimaldi (1)
Leibnitz believed he saw the image of creation in his binary arithmetic in which he employed only two characters, unity and zero. Since God may be represented by unity, and nothing by zero, he imagined that the Supreme Being might have drawn all things from nothing, just as in the binary arithmetic all numbers are expressed by unity with zero. This idea was so pleasing to Leibnitz, that he communicated it to the Jesuit Grimaldi, President of the Mathematical Board of China, with the hope that this emblem of the creation might convert to Christianity the reigning emperor who was particularly attached to the sciences.
In 'Essai Philosophique sur les Probabiliés', Oeuvres (1896), t. 7, 119.
See also:
- 2 Apr - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Grimaldi's birth.
- Francesco Maria Grimaldi Biography - from Penny Cyclopædia (1845).
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
