Opticks : $b or, A treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colours of light — John Shaqi
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
In a very dark Chamber, at a round Hole, about one third Part of an Inch
broad, made in the Shut of a Window, I placed a Glass Prism, whereby the
Beam of the Sun's Light, which came in at that Hole, might be refracted
upwards toward the opposite Wall of the Chamber, and there form a
colour'd Image of the Sun. The Axis of the Prism (that is, the Line
passing through the middle of the Prism from one end of it to the other
end parallel to the edge of the Refracting Angle) was in this and the
following Experiments perpendicular to the incident Rays. About this
Axis I turned the Prism slowly, and saw the refracted Light on the Wall,
or coloured Image of the Sun, first to descend, and then to ascend.
Between the Descent and Ascent, when the Image seemed Stationary, I
stopp'd the Prism, and fix'd it in that Posture, that it should be moved
no more. For in that Posture the Refractions of the Light at the two
Sides of the refracting Angle, that is, at the Entrance of the Rays into
the Prism, and at their going out of it, were equal to one another.[C]
So also in other Experiments, as often as I would have the Refractions
on both sides the Prism to be equal to one another, I noted the Place
where the Image of the Sun formed by the refracted Light stood still
between its two contrary Motions, in the common Period of its Progress
and Regress; and when the Image fell upon that Place, I made fast the
Prism. And in this Posture, as the most convenient, it is to be
understood that all the Prisms are placed in the following Experiments,
unless where some other Posture is described. The Prism therefore being
placed in this Posture, I let the refracted Light fall perpendicularly
upon a Sheet of white Paper at the opposite Wall of the Chamber, and
observed the Figure and Dimensions of the Solar Image formed on the
Paper by that Light. This Image was Oblong and not Oval, but terminated
with two Rectilinear and Parallel Sides, and two Semicircular Ends. On
its Sides it was bounded pretty distinctly, but on its Ends very
confusedly and indistinctly, the Light there decaying and vanishing by
degrees. The Breadth of this Image answered to the Sun's Diameter, and
was about two Inches and the eighth Part of an Inch, including the
Penumbra. For the Image was eighteen Feet and an half distant from the
Prism, and at this distance that Breadth, if diminished by the Diameter
of the Hole in the Window-shut, that is by a quarter of an Inch,
subtended an Angle at the Prism of about half a Degree, which is the
Sun's apparent Diameter. But the Length of the Image was about ten
Inches and a quarter, and the Length of the Rectilinear Sides about
eight Inches; and the refracting Angle of the Prism, whereby so great a
Length was made, was 64 degrees. With a less Angle the Length of the
Image was less, the Breadth remaining the same. If the Prism was turned
about its Axis that way which made the Rays emerge more obliquely out of
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