Diagram relating to Alhazen's problem
Date
22 November 1670
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p2
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 305mm
width (page): 205mm
width (page): 205mm
Subject
Description
Both Renatus Slusius and Christian Huygens were interested in 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 (the Latinised name of Ibn al-Haytham (965-1045)). The diagrams, relating to this problem, are from Slusius’s letter to Oldenburg dated 22 November 1670, in which he claimed that Huygens’s construction was the same as his. This letter was published by Oldenburg in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 8, no. 97 (October 1673), pp. 6119-22, together with a letter from Huygens.
There are copies of these diagrams at LBO/4/126 and LBC/4/173-74.
There are copies of these diagrams at LBO/4/126 and LBC/4/173-74.
Object history
Printed as tab. 2, figs 2-4, in C. Huygens and R. F. Slusius, 'Some letters exchanged between Monsieur Slusius and Monsieur Hugenius, about a considerable optic problem (the point of reflection in a concave and convex mirror) of Alhazen', Phil. Trans. vol. 8, no. 97 (October 1673), pp. 6119-26 (pp. 6119-22).
Related fellows
Renatus Franciscus Slusius (1622 - 1685, Belgian) , Mathematician
Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
Christiaan Huygens (1629 - 2006, Dutch) , Natural philosopher
Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
Christiaan Huygens (1629 - 2006, Dutch) , Natural philosopher
Associated place