Hooke

Meanings

1. 1proper nounproper

   Robert Hooke, the seventeenth-century English scientist who studied springs, wrote about the cell using a microscope, and was a rival of Isaac Newton.

   Grammar: A surname, capitalized and used without an article: Hooke wrote Micrographia.

   Patterns

   • Hooke's law
   • Hooke's Micrographia

   Hooke used an early microscope to study thin slices of cork.

   Students first meet Hooke when they learn how a spring stretches.

   Hooke and Newton disagreed publicly about who had discovered certain ideas.

2. 2proper nounproperphysics

   Used in the name of Hooke's law, the principle that the force needed to stretch a spring is proportional to the distance stretched.

   Grammar: Usually appears as the possessive Hooke's in the phrase Hooke's law.

   Patterns

   • Hooke's law
   • Hooke's constant

   According to Hooke's law, doubling the stretch doubles the force.

   The spring obeyed Hooke's law until it was overstretched.

   The class measured how closely the rubber band followed Hooke's law.

Common combinations

Hooke's law

Hooke's law fails when a spring is stretched past its elastic limit.

Robert Hooke

Robert Hooke published detailed drawings of insects seen under the microscope.

Hooke's Micrographia

Hooke's Micrographia was a bestseller in the 1660s.

Hooke and Newton

Hooke and Newton argued over the nature of light.

Word family

Hookean adjective

obeying Hooke's law, as an ideal spring does

Hookean behavior noun

the way an ideal elastic material stretches in proportion to force

Commonly confused: Hooke or hook?

Practice

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