Photo: Sopianwar / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Nationality: Arab
Born: July 1, 965 AD
Born Place: Basrah, Iraq
Died: March 6, 1040
Death Place: Cairo, Egypt
Influenced by: Aristotle, Al-Kindi, Ptolemy, Euclid, Thabit ibn Qurra, Galen, Banu Musa, Abu Sahl al-Quhi, Ibn Sahl
Fields: Optics, Astronomy, Mathematics
Gender: Male
Known for: Book of Optics, Doubts Concerning Ptolemy, Alhazen’s problem, analysis, Catoptrics, horopter, intromission theory of visual perception, moon illusion, experimental science, scientific methodology, empirical theory of perception, animal psychology
BIOGRAPHY
Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham (full name Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham أبو علي، الحسن بن الحسن بن الهيثم; c. 965 – c. 1040) was an Arab mathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age. Referred to as “the father of modern optics”, he made significant contributions to the principles of optics and visual perception in particular. His most influential work is titled Kitāb al-Manāẓir (Arabic: كتاب المناظر, “Book of Optics”), written during 1011–1021, which survived in a Latin edition. A polymath, he also wrote on philosophy, theology and medicine.
Ibn al-Haytham was the first to explain that vision occurs when light reflects from an object and then passes to one’s eyes. He was also the first to demonstrate that vision occurs in the brain, rather than in the eyes. Building upon a naturalistic, empirical method pioneered by Aristotle in ancient Greece, Ibn al-Haytham was an early proponent of the concept that a hypothesis must be supported by experiments based on confirmable procedures or mathematical evidence—an early pioneer in the scientific method five centuries before Renaissance scientists.
Born in Basra, he spent most of his productive period in the Fatimid capital of Cairo and earned his living authoring various treatises and tutoring members of the nobilities. Ibn al-Haytham is sometimes given the byname al-Baṣrī after his birthplace, or al-Miṣrī (“of Egypt”). Al-Haytham was dubbed the “Second Ptolemy” by Abu’l-Hasan Bayhaqi and “The Physicist” by John Peckham. Ibn al-Haytham paved the way for the modern science of physical optics.
Mathematical works
In mathematics, Alhazen built on the mathematical works of Euclid and Thabit ibn Qurra and worked on “the beginnings of the link between algebra and geometry”.
He developed a formula for summing the first 100 natural numbers, using a geometric proof to prove the formula.
Geometry
Alhazen explored what is now known as the Euclidean parallel postulate, the fifth postulate in Euclid’s Elements, using a proof by contradiction,[113] and in effect introducing the concept of motion into geometry.[114] He formulated the Lambert quadrilateral, which Boris Abramovich Rozenfeld names the “Ibn al-Haytham–Lambert quadrilateral”.
In elementary geometry, Alhazen attempted to solve the problem of squaring the circle using the area of lunes (crescent shapes), but later gave up on the impossible task. The two lunes formed from a right triangle by erecting a semicircle on each of the triangle’s sides, inward for the hypotenuse and outward for the other two sides, are known as the lunes of Alhazen; they have the same total area as the triangle itself.
Number theory
Alhazen’s contributions to number theory include his work on perfect numbers. In his Analysis and Synthesis, he may have been the first to state that every even perfect number is of the form 2n−1(2n − 1) where 2n − 1 is prime, but he was not able to prove this result; Euler later proved it in the 18th century.
Alhazen solved problems involving congruences using what is now called Wilson’s theorem. In his Opuscula, Alhazen considers the solution of a system of congruences, and gives two general methods of solution. His first method, the canonical method, involved Wilson’s theorem, while his second method involved a version of the Chinese remainder theorem.
Calculus
Alhazen discovered the sum formula for the fourth power, using a method that could be generally used to determine the sum for any integral power. He used this to find the volume of a paraboloid. He could find the integral formula for any polynomial without having developed a general formula.
LEGACY
Alhazen made significant contributions to optics, number theory, geometry, astronomy and natural philosophy. Alhazen’s work on optics is credited with contributing a new emphasis on experiment.
His main work, Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics), was known in the Muslim world mainly, but not exclusively, through the thirteenth-century commentary by Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī, the Tanqīḥ al-Manāẓir li-dhawī l-abṣār wa l-baṣā’ir. In al-Andalus, it was used by the eleventh-century prince of the Banu Hud dynasty of Zaragossa and author of an important mathematical text, al-Mu’taman ibn Hūd. A Latin translation of the Kitab al-Manazir was made probably in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. This translation was read by and greatly influenced a number of scholars in Christian Europe including: Roger Bacon, Robert Grosseteste, Witelo, Giambattista della Porta, Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Christiaan Huygens, René Descartes, and Johannes Kepler. 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”. Meanwhile in the Islamic world, Alhazen’s work influenced Averroes’ writings on optics, and his legacy was further advanced through the ‘reforming’ of his Optics by Persian scientist Kamal al-Din al-Farisi (died c. 1320) in the latter’s Kitab Tanqih al-Manazir (The Revision of [Ibn al-Haytham’s] Optics). Alhazen wrote as many as 200 books, although only 55 have survived. Some of his treatises on optics survived only through Latin translation. During the Middle Ages his books on cosmology were translated into Latin, Hebrew and other languages.
The impact crater Alhazen on the Moon is named in his honour, as was the asteroid 59239 Alhazen. In honour of Alhazen, the Aga Khan University (Pakistan) named its Ophthalmology endowed chair as “The Ibn-e-Haitham Associate Professor and Chief of Ophthalmology”. Alhazen, by the name Ibn al-Haytham, is featured on the obverse of the Iraqi 10,000-dinar banknote issued in 2003, and on 10-dinar notes from 1982.
The 2015 International Year of Light celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the works on optics by Ibn Al-Haytham.
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 4 July 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Great post, I think blog owners should larn a lot from this website its rattling user genial .
I happen to be commenting to let you know of the cool experience my wife’s princess encountered using your site. She realized such a lot of details, including how it is like to have an excellent teaching style to have the others clearly fully grasp chosen advanced matters. You truly did more than our desires. I appreciate you for presenting the good, dependable, explanatory as well as unique guidance on that topic to Tanya.
I’d must check with you here. Which isn’t something It’s my job to do! I love to reading an article that may make people think. Also, thank you allowing me to comment!
That is some inspirational stuff. Never knew that opinions could be this varied. Do you still feel this way?
Sweet blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Thank you
thanx for such a fantastic website. Where else could someone get that kind of info written in such a perfect way? I have a presentation that I am presently working on, and I have been on the look out for such information.
healthier hair is of course mainly due to genetics but food supplementation can also help you get it,
That’s a very good point of view, yet is just not create any kind of sence at all discussing this mather. Any kind of approach thanks as well as i had try to promote the publish towards delicius but it is very much a problem with your blogging on earth do you you should recheck this. many thanks once again.
This internet site may be a walk-through its the data you wanted in regards to this and didn’t know who must. Glimpse here, and you’ll absolutely discover it.
very nice publish, i certainly love this web site, carry on it
hey there and thanks for your information – I’ve certainly picked up something new from proper here. I did however expertise several technical points the usage of this site, since I skilled to reload the site many times prior to I could get it to load correctly. I were brooding about in case your web host is OK? Now not that I’m complaining, however sluggish loading circumstances times will often impact your placement in google and could harm your high-quality ranking if ads and with Adwords. Well I am including this RSS to my e-mail and could glance out for a lot more of your respective intriguing content. Ensure that you replace this once more very soon..
Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive read anything such as this before. So nice to uncover somebody by incorporating original applying for grants this subject. realy we appreciate you starting this up. this fabulous website is one thing that is needed on-line, somebody with a little originality. beneficial work for bringing new stuff for the web!
After study many of the websites on the web site now, we genuinely much like your means of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark internet site list and will also be checking back soon. Pls consider my web site at the same time and inform me what you consider.
I’m really inspired together with your writing abilities and also with the layout to your weblog. Is this a paid subject matter or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent high quality writing, it is uncommon to see a nice weblog like this one nowadays..
Hello there, I found your blog via Google while searching for a related topic, your web site came up, it looks great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out right here. The sketch is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an impatience over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this increase.
Thanks for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research about this. We got a book from our local library but I think I learned better from this post. I am very glad to see such excellent info being shared freely out there..
I am glad to be a visitant of this double dyed website ! , thankyou for this rare info ! .
I am curious to find out what blog system you happen to be working with? I’m experiencing some minor security issues with my latest website and I would like to find something more safeguarded. Do you have any recommendations?
I precisely had to thank you so much once again. I’m not certain the things I could possibly have implemented in the absence of the actual smart ideas revealed by you directly on such a industry. This has been an absolute distressing condition in my opinion, however , encountering a new specialized fashion you managed the issue forced me to cry over joy. Now i am happy for the assistance and hope that you find out what a powerful job you happen to be accomplishing teaching people via your blog. Probably you haven’t encountered any of us.