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A Critical Edition of Ibn al-Haytham’s On the Shape of the Eclipse: The First Experimental Study of the Camera Obscura

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This book provides the first critical edition of Ibn al-Haytham’s On the Shape of the Eclipse with English translation and commentary, which records the first scientific analysis of the camera obscura. On the Shape of the Eclipse includes pioneering research on the conditions of formation of the image, in a time deemed to be committed to aniconism. It also provides an early attempt to merge the two branches of Ancient optics—the theory of light and theory of vision.

What perhaps most strongly characterizes this treatise is the close interaction of a geometric analysis of light and experimental reasoning. Ibn al-Haytham conducted his experiments in a systematic way by varying all that could be changed: the shape and size of the aperture, the focal length of the camera obscura, the distance and shape of the celestial bodies. This way, he achieved a thorough understanding. This work represents a decisive step in both the history of optics and the application of the experimental method that was just as efficient in medieval Islam as today.

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Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

621.366 RAY c

Publisher

: Springer., 2016

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

978-3-319-47991-0

Classification

621.366

Content Type

text

Media Type

computer

Carrier Type

online resource

Edition

Ed. 1

Subject(s)

History of Mathematical Sciences
Laser

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

Dominique Raynaud

Other Information

Cataloger

umi

Source

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-319-47991-0.pdf?pdf=button

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