Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.14809

    Diagram relating to Alhazen's problem

    Date
    31 August 1672
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p337
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 313mm
    width (page): 197mm
    Description
    The debate between Huygens and Slusius about the solution to the problem of finding a point of reflection on the surface of a spherical mirror in relation to two points, the eye and the visible object, attributed to Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham (965-1045)) had been discussed at the meetings of the Royal Society on 3 July 1672 and 18 December 1672.

    This diagram is from Slusius's discussion of Alhazen's problem in a letter to Oldenburg, which was printed in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 8, no. 98 (November 1673), pp. 6145-46.

    The diagram in the letter is at EL/S1/72/001. There is another copy at LBC/5/369.
    Transcription
    Prid. Kal. Septemb.
    Transcribed by the Making Visible project
    Object history
    R. F. Slusius and C. Huygens, 'Continuation of the optical problem of Alhazen,' Phil. Trans. vol. 8, no. 98 (November 1673), pp. 6145-46.
    Related fellows
    Renatus Franciscus Slusius (1622 - 1685, Belgian) , Mathematician
    Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
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