Article ID: CBB000930000

Leonhard Euler's Wave Theory of Light (2008)

unapi

Pedersen, Kurt Møller (Author)


Perspectives on Science
Volume: 16
Pages: 392--416


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Part of a Special Issue on Optics
Language: English

Euler's wave theory of light developed from a mere description of this notion based on an analogy between sound and light to a more and more mathematical elaboration on that notion. He was very successful in predicting the shape of achromatic lenses based on a new dispersion law that we now know is wrong. Most of his mathematical arguments were, however, guesswork without any solid physical reasoning. Guesswork is not always a bad thing in physics if it leads to new experiments or makes the theory coherent with other theories. And Euler tried to find such experiments. He saw the construction of achromatic lenses, the explanation of colors of thin plates and of the opaque bodies as proof of his theory. When it came to the fundamental issues, the correctness of his dispersion law and the prediction of frequencies of light he was not at all successful. His wave theory degenerated, and it was not until Augustin Fresnel introduced transverse waves and an elaborate notion of interference that the wave theory again progressed.

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Article Dijksterhuis, Fokko Jan (2008) Reading Up on the Opticks. Refashioning Newton's Theories of Light and Colors in Eighteenth-Century Textbooks. Perspectives on Science (p. 309). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000930000/

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Authors & Contributors
Sascha Grusche
Nordenmark, Nils Viktor Emanuel
Mueller, Olaf L.
Zemplén, Gábor Á.
Sun, Chengsheng
Rosmorduc, Vinca
Concepts
Physics
Optics
Light
Experiments and experimentation
Lenses
Historiography
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Ming dynasty (China, 1368-1644)
Early modern
Places
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Slovenia
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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