Francesco Maria Grimaldi (April 2, 1618 - December 28, 1663) was an Italian mathematician and physicist who taught at the Jesuit college in Bologna. April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 273 days remaining. ... Events March 8 - Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion (he soon rejects the idea after some initial calculations were made but on May 15 confirms the discovery). ... December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 3 days remaining. ... Events Prix de Rome scholarship established for students of the arts. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ... The word physicist should not be confused with physician, which means medical doctor. ... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... Bologna (from Latin Bononia, Bulaggna in the local dialect) is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, between the Po River and the Apennines. ...

Between 1640 and 1650, working with Riccioli, he investigated the free fall of objects, discovering that the distance of fall was proportional to the square of the time taken. Events December 1 - Portugal regains its independence from Spain and João IV of Portugal becomes king. ... Events June 23 - Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, the only of the three Kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler. ... Giovanni Battista Riccioli (April 17, 1598 – June 25, 1671) was an Italian astronomer. ... Free-fall or free fall in the strict sense is the condition of acceleration which is due only to gravity. ...

In astronomy, he built and used instruments to measure geological features on the Moon, and drew an accurate map or selenograph which was published by Riccioli. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can still play an active role, especially in the discovery and monitoring of transient phenomena. ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ...

He was the first to make accurate observations on the diffraction of light (although Leonardo da Vinci had earlier noted it), and coined the word 'diffraction'. Later physicists used his work as evidence that light was a wave, and Isaac Newton used it to arrive at his more comprehensive theory of light. Diffraction is the apparent bending and spreading of waves when they meet an obstruction. ... Prism splitting light Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is visible to the eye, or in a more general sense, any electromagnetic radiation in the range from infrared to ultraviolet. ... Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance architect, musician, anatomist, inventor, engineer, sculptor, geometer, and painter. ... Sir Isaac Newton in Knellers 1689 portrait Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727 by the Julian calendar in use in England at the time; or 4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727 by the Gregorian calendar) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and alchemist who wrote...

Publications

• Physicomathesis de lumine, coloribus, et iride, aliisque annexis (published 1665)