Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15909

    Limits of rainbows

    Date
    20 August 1670
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p1
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 306mm
    width (page): 204mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > weather
    Description
    A diagram originally used by Descartes to determine the limits of the primary and secondary rainbows in angular measure from the observer's eyes. In his letter to Henry Oldenburg dated 20 August 1670, Franciscus Renatus Slusius suggested that he could find the solution by experimenting on a glass globe full of water. Slusius asked Oldenburg to transmit this solution to Isaac Barrow, who was doubtful of its accuracy.

    There are copies of this diagram at LBO/4/048 and LBC/4/064.
    Related fellows
    Renatus Franciscus Slusius (1622 - 1685, Belgian) , Mathematician
    Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Belgium
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