Virtually every volume on mythology contains legends connected with the rainbow and practically all modern textbooks of physics include some exposition of the optical principles which account for the bow. Mankind has been thinking, talking and writing about the rainbow for thousands of years. The Rainbow: from Myth to Mathematics gathers material from a great number of primary and secondary sources in the hopes that readers may be tempted to study further some aspects of the history of the theory of the rainbow. Includes information on Aristotle, Francis Bacon, the Christian tradition, color, Rene, Descartes, fogbow, Augustin Fresnel, Galileo Galilei, halo, Islamic tradition, Jesuits, Johann Kepler, nature of light, mirrors, Sir Isaac Newton, Olympiodorus, physics, rainbow breadth, reflection, refraction, Robert Grosseteste, Themo Judoci, Witelo, etc.

Virtually every volume on mythology contains legends connected with the rainbow and practically all modern textbooks of physics include some exposition of the optical principles which account for the bow. Mankind has been thinking, talking and writing about the rainbow for thousands of years. The Rainbow: from Myth to Mathematics gathers material from a great number of primary and secondary sources in the hopes that readers may be tempted to study further some aspects of the history of the theory of the rainbow. Includes information on Aristotle, Francis Bacon, the Christian tradition, color, Rene, Descartes, fogbow, Augustin Fresnel, Galileo Galilei, halo, Islamic tradition, Jesuits, Johann Kepler, nature of light, mirrors, Sir Isaac Newton, Olympiodorus, physics, rainbow breadth, reflection, refraction, Robert Grosseteste, Themo Judoci, Witelo, etc.

The scientists of the twelfth century were daring, original, inventive, and above all determined to discover purely rational explanations of natural phenomena. Their intense interest in the natural world for its own sake, their habits of precise observation, and the high value they place on man as a rational being portend a new age in the history of scientific thought. This book offers a comprehensive sampling of medieval scientific thought in the context of an historical narrative.