vortex theory

noun

An obsolete scientific theory, chiefly developed by René Descartes, which attempted to explain celestial mechanics and the phenomena now described as gravitation by positing a system of fluid vortices governed by centrifugal forces and extending outwards from the sun.

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Meanings

nounvortex theory (uncountable)
  1. historicaluncountablenatural sciencesAn obsolete scientific theory, chiefly developed by René Descartes, which attempted to explain celestial mechanics and the phenomena now described as gravitation by positing a system of fluid vortices governed by centrifugal forces and extending outwards from the sun.

    Christiaan Huygens came to doubt the vortex theory “which formerly appeared very likely” to him.

    2021, Stathis Psillos, “From the Evidence of History to the History of Evidence: Descartes, Newton, and Beyond”, in Timothy D. Lyons, Peter Vickers, editors, Contemporary Scientific Realism: The Challenge from the History of Science, →ISBN, page 79
    2 more examples

    Roger Cotes, in a preface to the first English edition of the Principia in 1729, argued that vortex-theory, with its notion of the plenum and its ambition to explain natural effects on exclusively physical grounds, made no allowance for, and could not be fitted into, a teleological scheme of any kind.

    1953, Aram Vartanian, Diderot and Descartes: A Study of Scientific Naturalism in the Enlightenment, pages 83–84

    Still, it cannot be denied that the fortunes of vortex theory eclipsed radically with the publication of Newton’s Principia.

    2000, Stephen Gaukroger, “The foundational role of hydrostatics and statics in Descartes’ natural philosophy”, in Stephen Gaukroger, John Schuster, John Sutton, editors, Descartes’ Natural Philosophy, →ISBN, page 71
  2. uncountableThe vortex theory of the atom: a theory by Lord Kelvin, to explain why there are relatively few types of atom, but a huge number of each type.
  3. uncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see vortex, theory.
Cite this entry
APA

vortex theory. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vortex%20theory

MLA

“vortex theory.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vortex%20theory. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vortex theory,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vortex%20theory.

Source: vortex theory on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.