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Thomas Young
was born in 1773 to Quaker parents in Milverton, England. He was a
child prodigy. Before his fifth birthday, Young read the entire
Bible twice. He read and wrote Latin at age six. By the time
Young turned fourteen, he had knowledge of at least five languages.
In time he learned twelve.
While doing a
fellowship at the British Royal Society, Young wrote several papers
on the human eye. He explored accommodation, meaning the eye’s lens
changing shape to focus on objects at various distances. Young also
researched astigmatism and in 1801 hypothesized that it was the
result of an improperly curved cornea. Young additionally
discovered that the human eye only sees three colors, red green and
blue. All other colors are made up of those three.
Young’s
interests did not end with ophthalmology. He also was a genius at
linguistics, math, science and medicine. Young brilliantly
translated the Rosetta stone, making it possible to understand
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. He created Young’s modulus, which
is the absolute measure of the elasticity of solids. Young
confirmed the wave theory of light with his double-slit interference
experiment. Throughout his life Thomas Young enlightened scholars
in countless fields.
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