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
_Exper._ 7. At two holes made near one another in my Window-shut I
placed two Prisms, one at each, which might cast upon the opposite Wall
(after the manner of the third Experiment) two oblong coloured Images of
the Sun. And at a little distance from the Wall I placed a long slender
Paper with straight and parallel edges, and ordered the Prisms and Paper
so, that the red Colour of one Image might fall directly upon one half
of the Paper, and the violet Colour of the other Image upon the other
half of the same Paper; so that the Paper appeared of two Colours, red
and violet, much after the manner of the painted Paper in the first and
second Experiments. Then with a black Cloth I covered the Wall behind
the Paper, that no Light might be reflected from it to disturb the
Experiment, and viewing the Paper through a third Prism held parallel
to it, I saw that half of it which was illuminated by the violet Light
to be divided from the other half by a greater Refraction, especially
when I went a good way off from the Paper. For when I viewed it too near
at hand, the two halfs of the Paper did not appear fully divided from
one another, but seemed contiguous at one of their Angles like the
painted Paper in the first Experiment. Which also happened when the
Paper was too broad.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.]
Sometimes instead of the Paper I used a white Thred, and this appeared
through the Prism divided into two parallel Threds as is represented in
the nineteenth Figure, where DG denotes the Thred illuminated with
violet Light from D to E and with red Light from F to G, and _defg_ are
the parts of the Thred seen by Refraction. If one half of the Thred be
constantly illuminated with red, and the other half be illuminated with
all the Colours successively, (which may be done by causing one of the
Prisms to be turned about its Axis whilst the other remains unmoved)
this other half in viewing the Thred through the Prism, will appear in
a continual right Line with the first half when illuminated with red,
and begin to be a little divided from it when illuminated with Orange,
and remove farther from it when illuminated with yellow, and still
farther when with green, and farther when with blue, and go yet farther
off when illuminated with Indigo, and farthest when with deep violet.
Which plainly shews, that the Lights of several Colours are more and
more refrangible one than another, in this Order of their Colours, red,
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, deep violet; and so proves as well
the first Proposition as the second.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account