Lenses and Waves Christiaan Huygens and the Mathematical Science of Optics in the Seventeenth Century /

• Main Author: Dijksterhuis, Fokko Jan (Author)
• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands, 2005.
• Series: Archimedes, 9
• Subjects: Science.; Philosophy.; Mathematics.; History.; Physics.; Science, general.; History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics.; History of Mathematical Sciences.; Philosophy of Technology.

In 1690, Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) published Traité de la Lumière, containing his renowned wave theory of light. It is considered a landmark in seventeenth-century science, for the way Huygens mathematized the corpuscular nature of light and his probabilistic conception of natural knowledge. Th...

Table of Contents:

• From the contents: 1. Introduction – 'The perfect Cartesian'
• 2. 1653 – 'Tractatus'
• 3. 1655-1672 – 'De Aberratione'
• 4. The 'Project' of 1672
• 5. 1677-1679 – Waves of Light
• 6. 1690 – Traité de la Lumière
• 7. Conclusion: Lenses & Waves
• List of figures
• Bibliography
• Index.