"All experiments in which the eye of the investigator is provided with good optical instruments are distinguished, as is well known, by a high degree of precision; and some of the most important discoveries could not have been made without these instruments. Up to the present time, in experiments on diffraction there has been no instrument, except a magnifying-glass, which could be used with profit; and this may perhaps be one of the reasons why in this field of physical optics we are so backward, and why we know so little of the laws of this modification of light. ...[I]t is most to be desired that these laws should be exactly known; and this is specially so because a knowledge of them makes the nature of light itself better known at the same time."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
New Modifications of Light by the Mutual Influence and the Diffraction of Rays, and the Laws of this Modification
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/History_of_optics
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
History of optics
begins with the development of lenses by the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, followed by theories on light and vision developed by ancient Greek philosophers, and the development of in the Greco-Roman world. The word optics is derived from the Greek term τα ὀπτικά meaning "appearance or look". Optics was significantly reformed by the developments in the medieval Islamic world, such as the beginnings of physical and physiological optics, and then significantly advanced in early modern Europe
83 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by History of optics →
Related Quotes
"It is manifest that everything in the world, whether it be substance or accident, produces rays in its own manner lik…"
"Mohammedan science made a great advance on that of the Greeks... [in] optics, and this was very largely a by-product …"
"Do not Bodies act upon Light at a distance, and by their action bend its Rays; and is not this action (caeteris parib…"
"Phenomena were accounted for by taking into consideration the frictional resistances that would interfere with rapid …"
"Kepler's theory of vision introduced the concept of optical images that is the basis of modern ."
"The wave theory furnishes the simplest possible explanation of interference phenomena. On the other hand it has consi…"
"[T]he explanation of the rectilinear propagation of light from the standpoint of the wave theory presents difficultie…"
"The result of my work has been the most extraordinary, the most unforeseen, and the happiest, that ever was; for, aft…"
"Newton's proof of the law of refraction is based on an erroneous notion that light travels faster in glass than in ai…"
"The spectrum of the sun was first observed, in 1666, by Newton, who allowed light coming from a small round opening i…"