The first real scientist – Part 3

This article is a continuation of ‘The first real scientist – Part 2’.

Also, implemented the first experiments of light scattering between different component colors and studied shadows, rainbows and eclipses.

And, by observing how light scatters in the atmosphere, did you figure that the thickness of the atmosphere was about 100 kilometers, which is not bad. Like many other scholars, Ibn al-Haytham and isolation really needed time to concentrate on writing his
many treatises, including his brilliant work in optics.

And had a little timely opportunity when he was imprisoned in Egypt between 1011 and 1021, for failing in the task of helping to regulate the Nile overflows entrusted to a caliph.

While still in Basra, Ibn al-Haytham argued that the floods of autumn could be contained by a system of dikes and canals, which also serve as reservoirs for the summer.

But at Cairo, then realized that it was impossible from the perspective of engineering. Instead of admitting his mistake to the dangerous and murderer caliph, decided to feign madness as a way to escape punishment.

This immediately led to him being placed under house arrest, which however granted him ten years of confinement which might work.

Ibn al-Haytham was released when he died the caliph. His return to Iraq took advantage to post a hundred papers on different topics in physics and mathematics.

On a trip to the Middle East, I interviewed an expert in Alexandria who showed me the recent discovery of some works of Ibn al-Haytham on astronomy.

They think that he developed what is called celestial mechanics, explaining the orbits of the planets, which was ahead of Europeans like Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton.

It’s amazing that we are only now uncovering the debt that today’s physicists owe to a man who lived a thousand years ago.

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Posted by Fouad Ashraf on Apr 30 2012. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry