A history of optics from Greek antiquity to the nineteenth century / Olivier Darrigol.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Darrigol, Olivier.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Optics--History.

Optics.

Physical optics--History.

Physical optics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (340 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Summary:

This book is a long-term history of optics, from early Greek theories of vision to the nineteenth-century victory of the wave theory of light. It is a clear and richly illustrated synthesis of a large amount of literature, and a reliable and efficient guide for anyone who wishes to enter this domain.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Conventions and notations

1 From the Greeks to Kepler

1.1 Greek theories of vision

1.2 Medieval optics

1.3 Kepler's optics

1.4 Conclusions

2 Mechanical medium theories of the seventeenth century

2.1 Descartes's optics

2.2 From Hobbes to Hooke

2.3 Pardies's and Huygens's wave theories

2.4 Optical imaging

2.5 Conclusions

3 Newton's optics

3.1 Neo-atomist theories

3.2 Newton's early investigations

3.3 Early response

3.4 An hypothesis

3.5 The Opticks

3.6 Conclusions

4 The eighteenth century

4.1 Ray optics

4.2 Newtonian optics

4.3 Neo-Cartesian optics

4.4 Euler's theory of light

4.5 Conclusions

5 Interference, polarization, and waves in the early nineteenth century

5.1 Thomas Young on sound and light

5.2 Laplacian optics

5.3 Fresnel's optics

5.4 Conclusions

6 Ether and matter

6.1 The ether as an elastic body

6.2 The electromagnetic theory of light

6.3 The separation of ether and matter

6.4 Conclusions

7 Waves and rays

7.1 Hamiltonian optics

7.2 Diffraction theory

7.3 Fourier synthesis

7.4 Conclusions

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed October 10, 2013).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780191626944

0191626945

OCLC:

784886673