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History of Optics (audio mp3) by Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford and Emily Winterburn, Curator of Astronomy at the National Maritime Museum (recorded by the BBC
Pages in category "History of optics" The following 12 pages are in this category, out of 12 total. ... Emission theory (vision) H. A History of the Theories of ...
La dioptrique (in English Dioptrique, Optics, or Dioptrics) is a short treatise by René Descartes. It was published in 1637 included in one of the Essays written with Discourse on the Method . In this essay Descartes uses various models to understand the properties of light.
1864 – James Clerk Maxwell publishes his papers on a dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field; 1865 – James Clerk Maxwell publishes his landmark paper A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, in which Maxwell's equations demonstrated that electric and magnetic forces are two complementary aspects of electromagnetism.
Huygens propounded an undulatory theory of light, while Newton, calling on an analogy with the material point dynamics that he created, developed a corpuscular theory, the so-called "emission theory", which enabled him even to explain, albeit with a contrived hypothesis, effects nowadays considered wave effects, (i.e., Newton's rings).
A famous example is the bending of starlight by the Sun during a solar eclipse, a phenomenon that serves as evidence for the curvature of space as predicted by the theory of relativity. Atmospheric optics
Newton's corpuscular theory of light was gradually succeeded by the wave theory. It was not until the 19th century that the quantitative measurement of dispersed light was recognized and standardized. As with many subsequent spectroscopy experiments, Newton's sources of white light included flames and stars, including the Sun.
Because Optics contributed a new dimension to the study of vision, it influenced later scientists. In particular, Ptolemy used Euclid's mathematical treatment of vision and his idea of a visual cone in combination with physical theories in Ptolemy's Optics, which has been called "one of the most important works on optics written before Newton". [4]