The Historical Transformation of Newton's experimentum crucis : Pursuit of the Demonstration of Color Immutability(<Special Issue>Mixed Mathematics and Its Material Culture)

  • TAKUWA Yoshimi
    Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Tokyo Institute of Technology

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説明

This paper explains the historical change of Isaac Newton's experimentum crucis, both in its instrumental setup and in its role. The experimentum crucis, which was proposed in Newton's paper in 1672, has long been regarded as a comprehensive experiment capable of demonstrating not only the "different refrangibility" but also "color immutability." Such a conventional account of the experimentum crucis has been reconsidered by recent historians, including Simon Schaffer and Alan E. Shapiro in particular. However, they aim at analyzing the acceptance process of Newtonian optics and do not always pay close attention to the instrumental setup and the role of the experiment. In the present paper, the author will examine the chronological transformation of the two-prism experiment from the time of Newton's early optical study to the age of Newtonianism after his death, and will conclude with the following argument: whereas Newton had originally conceived the experimentum crucis as an experiment that demonstrated multiple conclusions, including "color immutability," he carefully delimited its role only to demonstrate "different refrangibility" when he published his results. Once he became confident about the acceptance of his theory, however, he returned to the original conception that the experiment demonstrated both the propositions about color. Like Newton, popular Newtonian writers in the 18th century pursued the comprehensive experiment symbolizing Newtonian optics.

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詳細情報 詳細情報について

  • CRID
    1572543027735122304
  • NII論文ID
    110009804039
  • NII書誌ID
    AA11081495
  • ISSN
    02854821
  • 本文言語コード
    en
  • データソース種別
    • CiNii Articles

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