Concept
Optics
Overview
branch of physics concerning light
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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FRESNEL'S THEORY.--The best example[5] that can be chosen of physics in the making is the theory of light and its relations to the theory of electricity. Thanks to Fresnel, optics is the best developed part of physics; the so-called wave-theory forms a whole truly satisfying to the mind. We must not, however, ask of it what it can not give us.
Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science
The chapter “OPTICS AND ELECTRICITY” is titled for Optics; states what Optics is.
Moreover such a ray will not fail of one of two modes: either it will subsist throughout the eye only, in which case Plato’s opinion that it goes forth from the eye is wrong; or else it will subsist throughout a body other than the material of which the eye is composed; for it must inevitably have a vehicle to carry it, seeing that a ray is an accidental quality or mode, and furthermore seeing that that body which…
Avicenna, A Compendium on the Soul
The author is tied to Optics in the knowledge graph.
Sir Isaac Newton has demonstrated to the eye, by the bare assistance of the prism, that light is a composition of coloured rays, which, being united, form white colour. A single ray is by him divided into seven, which all fall upon a piece of linen, or a sheet of white paper, in their order, one above the other, and at unequal distances.
Voltaire, Letters on England
The chapter “LETTER XVI.--ON SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S OPTICS” is titled for Optics; the author is tied to Optics in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Optics
- Avicenna
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Paul Valéry
- René Descartes
- Roger Bacon
- Al-Kindi
- Thomas Hobbes
- The School of Athens
- Voltaire
- Islam
- Robert Grosseteste
- Martin Knutzen
Related ideas
- Epicurus
- Avicenna
- Book of Optics
- Internet
- Isaac Newton
- Iran
- Ancient Greek
- Johannes Kepler
- Ibn al-Haytham
- Ashgate Publishing
- Ancient Greek philosophy
- Middle Ages
- Metaphysics
- Medicine
- Geometry
- Islamic world
- Molecule
- Matter
- Mesopotamia
- Atmosphere of Earth
- Niels Bohr
- Visual perception
- Physics
- Plato
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Ancient Greek philosophy.