Opticks : $b or, A treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colours of lightNewton, Isaac
Science
Opticks : $b or, A treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colours of light
Newton, Isaac
Optics -- Early works to 1800
There is yet another circumstance of these Experiments to be consider'd,
and that is why the black and white Rings which when view'd at a
distance appear distinct, should not only become confused by viewing
them near at hand, but also yield a violet Colour at both the edges of
every white Ring. And the reason is, that the Rays which enter the Eye
at several parts of the Pupil, have several Obliquities to the Glasses,
and those which are most oblique, if consider'd apart, would represent
the Rings bigger than those which are the least oblique. Whence the
breadth of the Perimeter of every white Ring is expanded outwards by the
obliquest Rays, and inwards by the least oblique. And this Expansion is
so much the greater by how much the greater is the difference of the
Obliquity; that is, by how much the Pupil is wider, or the Eye nearer to
the Glasses. And the breadth of the violet must be most expanded,
because the Rays apt to excite a Sensation of that Colour are most
oblique to a second or farther Superficies of the thinn'd Air at which
they are reflected, and have also the greatest variation of Obliquity,
which makes that Colour soonest emerge out of the edges of the white.
And as the breadth of every Ring is thus augmented, the dark Intervals
must be diminish'd, until the neighbouring Rings become continuous, and
are blended, the exterior first, and then those nearer the center; so
that they can no longer be distinguish'd apart, but seem to constitute
an even and uniform whiteness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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