Figure 1 - Ibn al-Haytham (965-1039)

The turn of the second millennium saw the emergence of experimental physics with the development of an experimental method emphasizing the role of experimentation as a form of proof in scientific inquiry, and the development of physical optics where the mathematical discipline of geometrical optics was successfully unified with the philosophical field of physics. The Iraqi physicist, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), is considered a central figure in this shift in physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental and mathematical one, and the shift in optics from a mathematical discipline to a physical and experimental one. Due to his positivist approach, his Doubts Concerning Ptolemy insisted on scientific demonstration and criticized Ptolemy’s confirmation bias and conjectural undemonstrated theories. His Book of Optics (1021) was the earliest successful attempt at unifying a mathematical discipline (geometrical optics) with the philosophical field of physics, to create the modern science of physical optics. An important part of this was the intromission theory of vision, which in order to prove, he developed an experimental method to test his hypothesis. He conducted various experiments to prove his intromission theory and other hypotheses on light and vision. The Book of Optics established experimentation as the norm of proof in optics, and gave optics a physico-mathematical conception at a much earlier date than the other mathematical disciplines. His On the Light of the Moon also attempted to combine mathematical astronomy with physics, a field now known as astrophysics, to formulate several astronomical hypotheses which he proved through experimentation [10, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_physics].

1.4.2 Note to text 1.4.1:

· Ibn al-Haytham - Ибн ал-Хайсам.

Text Galileo Galilei and the rise of physico-mathematics

Read the text and answer: What is Galileo famous for? Reread the third and the fourth abstracts of text 1.2.1 and make a list of Galileo’s contributions to science using the information from both the texts.

In the 17th century, natural philosophers began to mount a sustained attack on the Scholastic philosophical program, and supposed that mathematical descriptive schemes adopted from such fields as mechanics and astronomy could actually yield universally valid characterizations of motion. The Tuscan mathematician Galileo Galilei was the central figure in the shift to this perspective.

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Text Emergence of Experimental Method and Physical Optics	\|	Figure 2 - Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

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