Bøger af A. Mark Smith

This is a print on demand Publication. This is a reprint, this is not an original. Contents: Introduction; Ptolemy: A Biographical Sketch; The "Optics": A Biographical Sketch; An Overview of the "Optics"; The Historical Influence of the "Optics"; English Translation; & Bibliography. The English translation of this text is based upon Albert Lejeune's critical Latin text of 1956, which was reprinted in the 1990s along with a French translation & supplementary annotations. Illus.

Contents: (I) Ancient Theories of Visual Perception: The Physics of Vision; The Physiology of Vision; The Psychology of Visual Perception; (II) Optics Proper: Analysis of Direct Vision: The Visual Cone; The Visual Perception of Physical Space; Binocular Vision; (III) Catoptrics: Analysis of Vision by Reflected Rays: The Law of Equal Angles; Multiple Reflections and Multiple Images; The Principles of Image-Location; Image-Formation and Distortion; Visual Effecs from Composite Mirrors; (IV) Dioptrics: Analysis of Vision by Deflected Rays: Observation and Explanation of the Phenomenon; Practical Application: The Problem of Atmospheric Refraction; Image-Location as a Function of the Shape of the Refracting Surface; Size-Distortion; (V) Analysis of the Rainbow and of Burning Mirrors; (VI) Conclusion. Illus.

Breaking from previous scholarship that sees Johannes Kepler as the culmination of a long-evolving optical tradition that traced back to Greek antiquity, the author presents Kepler instead as marking a rupture with this tradition, arguing that his theory of retinal imaging, was instrumental in prompting the turn from sight to light.