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Contents

The beginnings of geometrical optics

The Greek term τα όπτικά referred specifically to matters of vision[1], and hence early optics was concerned with the problem of how we see. Science is a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world, produced by a global community of researchers The sociology and Philosophy of science, as well as the entire field of Science studies, have in the 20th century been preoccupied with the question of The Historiography of Science usually refers to the study of History of Science in its disciplinary aspects and practices (methods theories schools and Note The contents of this page are expected to change as consensus is reached The History of science in early cultures refers to the study of Protoscience in Ancient history, prior to the development of Science in the Middle The history of science in Classical Antiquity begins with the search for practical knowledge In the Middle Ages, Science progressed dramatically from the time of antiquity in areas as diverse as Astronomy, Medicine, and Mathematics During the Renaissance, the rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the invention of Printing The period which many historians of science call the Scientific Revolution can be roughly dated as having begun in 1543 the year in which Nicolaus Copernicus published For the current in the 19th century German idealism see Naturphilosophie Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature (from Astronomy is the oldest of the Natural sciences dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, Mythological, and Astrological The history of biology traces the study of the living world from ancient to modern times The history of Chemistry begins with the discovery of Fire, then Metallurgy which allowed purification of metals and the making of alloys as well as the exploitation Ecology is generally spoken of as a new science having only become prominent in the second half of the 20th Century This article explores the History of Geography. Ancient geography See also Ancient Greek geography Ancient Greeks environment The history of geology is concerned with the development of the natural science of geology The history of Paleontology traces the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the Fossil record left behind by living organisms The modern discipline of Physics emerged in the 17th century following in traditions of inquiry established by Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Isaac For more see Social sciences#History of the social sciences In ancient philosophy there was no difference between the Liberal arts of mathematics The history of economic thought deals with different thinkers and theories in the field of Political economy and Economics from the ancient world to the present See also History of grammar Linguistics as a study endeavors to describe and explain the human faculty of Language. While the study of politics is first found in Ancient Greece and ancient India, political science is a late arrival in terms of Social sciences. The History of Psychology as a scholarly study of the mind and behavior dates back to the Middle Ages. Sociology is a relatively new academic discipline among other Social sciences including Economics, Political science, Anthropology, and The history of technology is the history of the Invention of Tools and techniques Agronomy and the related disciplines of Agricultural science today are very different from what they were before about 1950 The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of Computer science that emerged in the twentieth century The history of Materials science is the study of how different materials were used as influenced by the History of Earth and the Culture of the All human societies have medical beliefs that provide explanations for birth, Death, and Disease. This is a list of Timelines. Types of timelines Living graph Logarithmic timeline The early writers discussed here treated vision more as a geometrical than as a physical, physiological, or psychological problem.

The first known author of a treatise on optics was the geometer Euclid (c. Euclid ( Greek:.) fl 300 BC also known as Euclid of Alexandria, is often referred to as the Father of Geometry 325 BC–265 BC). Euclid began his study of optics as he began his study of geometry, with a set of self-evident axioms.

  1. Lines (or visual rays) can be drawn in a straight line to the object.
  2. Those lines falling upon an object form a cone.
  3. Those things upon which the lines fall are seen.
  4. Those things seen under a larger angle appear larger.
  5. Those things seen by a higher ray, appear higher.
  6. Right and left rays appear right and left.
  7. Things seen within several angles appear clearer.

Euclid did not define the physical nature of these visual rays but, using the principles of geometry, he discussed the effects of perspective and the rounding of things seen at a distance.

Where Euclid had limited his analysis to simple direct vision, Hero of Alexandria (c. Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria ( Ήρων ο Αλεξανδρεύς) (c AD 10-70 ) extended the principles of geometrical optics to consider problems of reflection (catoptrics). Unlike Euclid, Hero occasionally commented on the physical nature of visual rays, indicating that they proceeded at great speed from the eye to the object seen and were reflected from smooth surfaces but could become trapped in the porosities of unpolished surfaces. [2] This has come to be known as emission theory. Emission theory or extramission theory is the proposal that Visual perception is accomplished by rays of Light emitted by the Eyes This

Hero demonstrated the equality of the angle of incidence and reflection on the grounds that this is the shortest path from the object to the observer. On this basis, he was able to define the fixed relation between an object and its image in a plane mirror. Specifically, the image appears to be as far behind the mirror as the object really is in front of the mirror.

Like Hero, Ptolemy (c. Claudius Ptolemaeus ( Greek: Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; after 83 &ndash ca 90 – c. 168) considered the visual rays as proceeding from the eye to the object seen, but, unlike Hero, considered that the visual rays were not discrete lines, but formed a continuous cone. Ptolemy extended the study of vision beyond direct and reflected vision; he also studied vision by refracted rays (dioptrics), when we see objects through the interface between two media of different density. He conducted experiments to measure the path of vision when we look from air to water, from air to glass, and from water to glass and tabulated the relationship between the incident and refracted rays. [3]

His tabulated results have been studied for the air water interface, and in general the values he obtained reflect the theoretical refraction given by modern theory, but the outliers are clearly distorted to represent Ptolemy's a priori model of the nature of refraction.

Optics in the Islamic world

Al-Kindi (c. ( أبو يوسف يعقوب إبن إسحاق الكندي) (c 801–873) was one of the earliest important optical writers in the Islamic world. In a work known in the west as De radiis stellarum, al-Kindi developed a theory "that everything in the world . . . emits rays in every direction, which fill the whole world. "[4] It is believed that this theory of the active power of rays influenced such Western scholars as Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon. Robert Grosseteste (c 1175 &ndash October 9, 1253) English statesman scholastic philosopher, Theologian and Bishop of For the Nova Scotia premier see Roger Bacon (politician. Roger Bacon, O

Ibn Sahl (c. This article is about the physicist For the physician see Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari. 940-1000) was a mathematician associated with the court of Baghdad. A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. Baghdad (بغداد) is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous About 984 he wrote a treatise On Burning Mirrors and Lenses in which he set out his understanding of how curved mirrors and lenses bend and focus light. A curved mirror is a Mirror with a curved reflective surface which may be either convex (bulging outward or concave (bulging inward A lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate Axial symmetry which transmits and refracts Light, converging or diverging In his work he discovered a law of refraction mathematically equivalent to Snell's law. Refraction is the change in direction of a Wave due to a change in its Speed. In Optics and Physics, Snell's law (also known as Descartes' law or the law of refraction) is a formula used to describe the relationship [5] He used his law of refraction to compute the shapes of lenses and mirrors that focus light at a single point on the axis.

Ibn al-Haytham (known in Western Europe as Alhacen or Alhazen) (965-1040), often regarded as the "father of optics",[6] formulated "the first comprehensive and systematic alternative to Greek optical theories. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Arabic: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم Latinized Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Arabic: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم Latinized 965 was a year in the 10th century. Events By Place Europe The Khazar fortress of Sarkel falls "[7] His key achievement was twofold: first, to insist that vision only occurred because of rays entering the eye and that rays postulated to proceed from the eye had nothing to do with it; the second was to define the physical nature of the rays discussed by earlier geometrical optical writers, considering them as the forms of light and color. He developed a camera obscura to demonstrate that light and color from different candles passed through a single aperture in straight lines, without intermingling at the aperture. The camera obscura (Latin dark chamber) is an optical device used for example in drawing or for entertainment [8] He then analyzed these physical rays according to the principles of geometrical optics. Ibn al-Haytham also employed the experimental scientific method as a form of demonstration in optics. In scientific inquiry an experiment ( Latin: Ex- periri, "to try out" is a method of investigating particular types of research questions or Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena He wrote many books on optics, most significantly the Book of Optics (Kitab al Manazir in Arabic), translated into Latin as the De aspectibus or Perspectiva, which disseminated his ideas to Western Europe and had great influence on the later developments of optics. The Book of Optics ( Arabic: Kitab al-Manazir, Latin: De Aspectibus or Opticae Thesaurus Alhazeni Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. [9] Another aspect associated with Ibn al-Haytham's optical research is related to systemic and methodological reliance on experimentation (i'tibar) and controlled testing in his scientific inquiries. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Arabic: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم Latinized Moreover, his experimental directives rested on combining classical physics ('ilm tabi'i) with mathematics (ta'alim; geometry in particular)in terms of devising the rudiments of what may be designated as a hypothetico deductive procedure in scientific research. This mathematical-physical approach to experimental science supported most of his propositions in Kitab al-Manazir (The Optics; De aspectibus or Perspectivae) and gounded his theories of vision, light and colour, as well as his research in catoptrics and dioptrics. His legacy was further advanced through the 'reforming' of his Optics by Kamal al-Din al-Farisi (d. Kamal al-Din Abu'l-Hasan Muhammad Al-Farisi (1267-ca1319/1320 (كمال‌الدين ابوالحسن محمد فارسی was a prominent Persian Muslim physicist ca. 1320) in the latter's Kitab Tanqih al-Manazir (The Revision of [Ibn al-Haytham's] Optics). [10][11]

The western Middle Ages

The English bishop, Robert Grosseteste (c. Robert Grosseteste (c 1175 &ndash October 9, 1253) English statesman scholastic philosopher, Theologian and Bishop of 1175 - 1253), wrote on a wide range of scientific topics at the time of the origin of the medieval university and the recovery of the works of Aristotle. A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects Grosseteste reflected a period of transition between the Platonism of early medieval learning and the new Aristotelianism, hence he tended to apply mathematics and the Platonic metaphor of light in many of his writings. He has been credited with discussing light from four different perspectives: an epistemology of light, a metaphysics or cosmogony of light, an etiology or physics of light, and a theology of light. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science This article discusses scientific theories of creation (cosmogony Etiology (alternatively aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation. Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective [12]

Setting aside the issues of epistemology and theology, Grosseteste's cosmogony of light describes the origin of the universe in what may loosely be described as a medieval "big bang" theory. Both his biblical commentary, the Hexaemeron (1230 x 35), and his scientific On Light (1235 x 40), took their inspiration from Genesis 1:3, "God said, let there be light", and described the subsequent process of creation as a natural physical process arising from the generative power of an expanding (and contracting) sphere of light. [13]

Optical diagram showing light being refracted by a spherical glass container full of water. (from Roger Bacon or Robert Grosseteste)
Optical diagram showing light being refracted by a spherical glass container full of water. (from Roger Bacon or Robert Grosseteste)

His more general consideration of light as a primary agent of physical causation appears in his On Lines, Angles, and Figures where he asserts that "a natural agent propagates its power from itself to the recipient" and in On the Nature of Places where he notes that "every natural action is varied in strength and weakness through variation of lines, angles and figures. "[14]

The English Franciscan, Roger Bacon (c. The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic For the Nova Scotia premier see Roger Bacon (politician. Roger Bacon, O 1214 – 1294) was strongly influenced by Grosseteste's writings on the importance of light. In his optical writings (the Perspectiva, the De multiplicatione specierum, and the De speculis comburentibus) he cited a wide range of recently translated optical and philosophical works, including those of Alhacen, Aristotle, Avicenna, Averroes, Euclid, al-Kindi, Ptolemy, Tideus, and Constantine the African. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Arabic: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم Latinized Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Persian /ابو علی الحسین ابن عبدالله ابن سینا (born Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (Arabicأبو الوليد محمد بن احمد بن رشد better known just as Ibn Rushd (ابن رشد and in European Euclid ( Greek:.) fl 300 BC also known as Euclid of Alexandria, is often referred to as the Father of Geometry ( أبو يوسف يعقوب إبن إسحاق الكندي) (c Claudius Ptolemaeus ( Greek: Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; after 83 &ndash ca Constantine the African ( Latin Constantinus Africanus c 1020 Carthage or Sicily&ndash1087 monastery of Monte Cassino, near Cassino Principality Although he was not a slavish imitator, he drew his mathematical analysis of light and vision from the writings of the Arabic writer, Alhacen. But he added to this the Neoplatonic concept, perhaps drawn from Grosseteste, that every object radiates a power (species) by which it acts upon nearby objects suited to receive those species. [15] Note that Bacon's optical use of the term "species" differs significantly from the genus / species categories found in Aristotelian philosophy. In Biology, a species is one of the basic units of Biological classification and a Taxonomic rank.

Another English Franciscan, John Pecham (died 1292) built on the work of Bacon, Grosseteste, and a diverse range of earlier writers to produce what became the most widely used textbook on Optics of the Middle Ages, the Perspectiva communis. John Peckham or Pecham (circa 1230&ndash8 December 1292 was Archbishop of Canterbury in the years 1279&ndash1292 His book centered on the question of vision, on how we see, rather than on the nature of light and color. Pecham followed the model set forth by Alhacen, but interpreted Alhacen's ideas in the manner of Roger Bacon. [16]

Like his predecessors, Witelo (c. Witelo - also known as Erazmus Ciolek Witelo, Witelon, Vitellio, Vitello, Vitello Thuringopolonis, Vitulon, Erazm 1230 - 1280 x 1314) drew on the extensive body of optical works recently translated from Greek and Arabic to produce a massive presentation of the subject entitled the Perspectiva. His theory of vision follows Alhacen and he does not consider Bacon's concept of species, although passages in his work demonstrate that he was influenced by Bacon's ideas. Judging from the number of surviving manuscripts, his work was not as influential as those of Pecham and Bacon, yet his importance, and that of Pecham, grew with the invention of printing. [17]

Renaissance and early modern optics

Johannes Kepler(1571 – 1630)

René Descartes (1596 – 1650)

Christiaan Huygens (1629 – 1695)

Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727)

Lenses and Lensmaking

See also: Timeline of telescope technology

The earliest known lenses were made from polished crystal, often quartz, and have been dated as early as 700 BC for Assyrian lenses such as the Layard / Nimrud lens. Johannes Kepler (ˈkɛplɚ ( December 27 1571 &ndash November 15 1630) was a German Mathematician, Astronomer Christiaan Huygens (ˈhaɪgənz in English ˈhœyɣəns in Dutch) ( April 14, 1629 &ndash July 8, 1695) was a Dutch Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (ˈnjuːtən 4 January 1643 31 March 1727) Biography Early years See also Isaac Newton's early life and achievements Timeline of Telescope Technology c 2560 BC - c 860 BC - Egyptian artisans polish Rock crystal, A lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate Axial symmetry which transmits and refracts Light, converging or diverging In Materials science, a crystal is a Solid in which the constituent Atoms Molecules or Ions are packed in a regularly ordered repeating Quartz (from German) is the most abundant Mineral in the Earth 's Continental crust (although Feldspar is more common in Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture The Nimrud lens is a 3000 year old piece of Rock crystal, which was unearthed by Austen Henry Layard at the palace of Nimrud in what is now Iraq [18] There are many similar lenses from ancient Egypt, Greece and Babylon. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq The ancient Romans and Greeks filled glass spheres with water to make lenses. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC "Globose" redirects here See also Globose nucleus. A sphere (from Greek σφαίρα - sphaira, "globe Glass lenses were not thought of until the 13th century. Glass in the common sense refers to a Hard, Brittle, transparent Solid, such as that used for Windows many This is when Roger Bacon used parts of glass spheres as magnifying glasses and recommended them to be used to help people read. For the Nova Scotia premier see Roger Bacon (politician. Roger Bacon, O magnifying glass (called a hand lens in laboratory contexts is a convex lens which is used to produce a magnified Image of an object Roger Bacon got his inspiration from Alhacen in the 10th century. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Arabic: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم Latinized He discovered that light reflects from objects and does not get released from them. Between the 11th and 13th century "reading stones" were invented. A reading stone was an approximately hemispherical transparent object placed on top of text to magnify the letters so that people with Presbyopia could read the text Often used by monks to assist in illuminating manuscripts, these were primitive plano-convex lenses initially made by cutting a glass sphere in half. MONK is a Monte Carlo software package for simulating nuclear processes particularly for the purpose of determining the neutron multiplication factor or k-effective An illuminated manuscript is a Manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration such as decorated Initials borders and A lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate Axial symmetry which transmits and refracts Light, converging or diverging As the stones were experimented with, it was slowly understood that shallower lenses magnified more effectively. Magnification is the process of enlarging something only in appearance not in physical size

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, [1]
  2. ^ D. C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, (Chicago: Univ. The following is a list of astronomical instrument makers, along with lifespan and country of work if available David C Lindberg is an American historian of science He is the Hilldale Professor Emeritus of History of Science and Past Director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities of Chicago Pr. , 1976), pp. 14-15.
  3. ^ D. C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr. , 1976), p. 16; A. M. Smith, Ptolemy's search for a law of refraction: a case-study in the classical methodology of 'saving the appearances' and its limitations, Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 26 (1982), 221-240; Ptolemy's procedure is reported in the fifth chapter of his Optics.
  4. ^ Cited in D. C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr. , 1976), p. 19.
  5. ^ R. Rashed, "A Pioneer in Anaclastics: Ibn Sahl on Burning Mirrors and Lenses", Isis 81 (1990): 464–91. Isis is an Academic journal published by The University of Chicago Press devoted to the History of science, History of medicine
  6. ^ R. L. Verma "Al-Hazen: father of modern optics", Al-Arabi, 8 (1969): 12-13.
  7. ^ D. C. Lindberg, "Alhazen's Theory of Vision and its Reception in the West", Isis, 58 (1967), p. 322.
  8. ^ David C. Lindberg, "The Theory of Pinhole Images from Antiquity to the Thirteenth Century," Archive for History of the Exact Sciences, 5(1968):154-176.
  9. ^ D. C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr. , 1976), pp. 58-86.
  10. ^ Nader El-Bizri, "A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen’s Optics," Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Vol. 15, Issue 2 (2005), pp. 189-218 (Cambridge University Press)
  11. ^ Nader El-Bizri, "Ibn al-Haytham," in Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, eds. Thomas F. Glick, Steven J. Livesey, and Faith Wallis (New York — London: Routledge, 2005), pp. 237-240.
  12. ^ D. C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr. , 1976), pp. 94-99.
  13. ^ R. W. Southern, Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 136-9, 205-6.
  14. ^ A. C. Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 110
  15. ^ D. C. Lindberg, "Roger Bacon on Light, Vision, and the Universal Emanation of Force," pp. 243-275 in Jeremiah Hackett, ed. , Roger Bacon and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays, (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 245-250; Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr. , 1976), pp. 107-18; The Beginnings of Western Science, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr. , 1992, p. 313.
  16. ^ D. C. Lindberg, John Pecham and the Science of Optics: Perspectiva communis, (Madison, Univ. of Wisconsin Pr. , 1970), pp. 12-32; Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr. , 1976), pp. 116-18.
  17. ^ D. C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr. , 1976), pp. 118-20.
  18. ^ BBC News, "World's oldest telescope?"

References

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