Cristin-resultat-ID: 1901860
Sist endret: 31. mars 2021, 15:28
NVI-rapporteringsår: 2021
Resultat
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2021

Magnifying Grains of Sand, Seeds, and Blades of Grass: Optical Effects in Robert Grosseteste’s De iride (On the Rainbow) (circa 1228–1230)

Bidragsytere:
  • Rebekah C. White
  • Giles E. M. Gasper
  • Tom C. B. McLeish
  • Brian K. Tanner
  • Joshua S Harvey
  • Sigbjørn Olsen Sønnesyn
  • mfl.

Tidsskrift

Isis
ISSN 0021-1753
e-ISSN 1545-6994
NVI-nivå 2

Om resultatet

Vitenskapelig artikkel
Publiseringsår: 2021
Publisert online: 2021
Trykket: 2021
Volum: 112
Hefte: 1
Sider: 93 - 107

Klassifisering

Vitenskapsdisipliner

Elektromagnetisme, akustikk, optikk • Historie

Beskrivelse Beskrivelse

Tittel

Magnifying Grains of Sand, Seeds, and Blades of Grass: Optical Effects in Robert Grosseteste’s De iride (On the Rainbow) (circa 1228–1230)

Sammendrag

In his treatise On the Rainbow (De iride), composed nearly four hundred years before the first known telescope, the English polymath Robert Grosseteste identified three striking optical effects: distant objects can be rendered close by; close-by large objects can be rendered small; and distant small objects can be rendered large. In the context of the history of optics, the first effect is especially striking. Grosseteste did not give details of the mechanisms underlying these effects but did mention the passage of rays through refraction in “diaphanous” or transparent bodies. While making no final claim that Grosseteste himself necessarily knew of or used lenses, this essay examines the coherence between the three optical effects described in Grosseteste’s treatise and two candidate proposals for the deployment of a single convex lens. A convex lens, deployed in different ways, is shown to produce all three of Grosseteste’s optical effects, in a manner strikingly aligned with the language that he uses to distinguish changes in the location and size of objects. The implications of this coherence for interpretations of On the Rainbow are discussed throughout the essay.

Bidragsytere

Rebekah C. White

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter
    ved University of Oxford

Giles E. M. Gasper

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter
    ved University of Durham

Tom C. B. McLeish

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter
    ved University of York

Brian K. Tanner

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter
    ved University of Durham

Joshua S Harvey

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter
    ved New York University
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