Razi Ahmad | My Web Presence

The First Scientist

In school we are taught that Newton was first great scientist. He is known as father of modern science. His major work is in optics(science of light). But some new studies shows that truth is somewhat different. There was a great scientist who studied about light well before Newton did. Very few people in western world know the name of this great person. He was born in 965, seven hundred year before Newton came. His name was Al Hasan Ibn Haitham. His birthplace was the same place where now Baghdad is.

Generally people think that there was no major development in science between ancient Greek and European renaissance. But only becuase Europe was deep in the darkness it does not mean there was no work being done.

This period was golden period of Arab Scientists. During ninth and thirteenth century Arab did major work in Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Philosophy. Ibn Haitham’s name is one of the brightest of them.

He is the pioneer of modern scientific method which is the basis working of modern scientists. Haitham is also originator of experimental nature of physics. Earlier it was considered that modern scientific method was introduced by Bacon and René Descartes’s. But even Bacon accepts that Ibn Haitham has great influence on his work. Haitham brought about a great progress in experimental methods. His research in catoptrics (the study of optical systems using mirrors) centred on spherical and parabolic mirrors and spherical aberration. He made the observation that the ratio between the angle of incidence and refraction does not remain constant, and investigated the magnifying power of a lens. His work on catoptrics also contains the problem known as “Alhazen’s problem”. Ibn Haitham was first who explained the process of vision. He proved Aristotle and his followers wrong about theory of vision.  He reasoned that a ray could not proceed from the eyes and reach the distant stars the instant after we open our eyes. He also appealed to common observations such as the eye being dazzled or even injured if we look at a very bright light. He instead developed a highly successful theory which explained the process of vision as rays of light proceeding to the eye from each point on an object, which he proved through the use of experimentation. 

Ibn al-Haitham proved that rays of light travel in straight lines, and carried out various experiments with lenses, mirrors, refraction, and reflection. He was also the first to reduce reflected and refracted light rays into vertical and horizontal components, which was a fundamental development in geometric optics.He also discovered a result similar to Snell’s law of sines, but did not quantify it and derive the law mathematically.

Every researcher needs time and solitude to work and record his ideas which he got in very unfortunate way. When Ibn Haitham cannot fulfill his claim of changing the course of river Nile, he pretended to be mad. He was kept under house arrest from 1011 until ruler’s death in 1021. During this time, he wrote his influential Book on Optics titled Kitab al-Manazir.

This book can be ranked as most influential books in physics for introducing an early scientific method, and for initiating a revolution in optics and visual perception.

After his release Haitham went back to Iraq and wrote hundreds of papers on Physics and Mathematics. 

Kitab al-Manazir was translated into Latin by an unknown scholar at the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th century.It was printed by Friedrich Risner in 1572, with the title Opticae thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis libri septem, nuncprimum editi; Eiusdem liber De Crepusculis et nubium ascensionibus. Risner is also the author of the name variant “Alhazen”; before Risner he was known in the west as Alhacen, which is the correct transcription of the Arabic name.This work enjoyed a great reputation during the Middle Ages. Works by Ibn al-Haitham on geometric subjects were discovered in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris in 1834 by E. A. Sedillot. Other manuscripts are preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford and in the library of Leiden. 

It is very surprising that people came to know about the first Great Scientist who influenced so many Scientist, Mathematicians and Philosophers after so many years. He must get the right postion in history and world of science. We all in East are proud of Al Hasan Ibn Haitham. 

 

My Visit to New York on Christmas Eve

It was a joy to visit New York. NY is city full of excitements, inspirations and actions. Have a look at some of the snaps.

1. Me and Umair in New York

2. The billboard

3. Me, Umair and Aditya with his kid

4. Me and Anil

5. Another digital board

Hi, welcome to my world

Hi, this is Razi Ahmad @. Eternity Global. It’s my personal website. I call it my Window to the World. Stay Tuned!! I will have some good stories for you quite soon. Right now, a bit busy with some job stuffs.