Interactive animation of Descartes Refraction

This visualization shows how René Descartes explained the refraction of light in terms of his mechanistic philosophy (cfr. 'Les Météores' in Discours de la Méthode, 1637). Colour corresponds to the rotational velocity of a particle, and can be altered at the interface of two mediums. Though succesful as basis for his treatment of the appearence of the rainbow, Descartes' refraction model soon was famously questioned by Isaac Newton's prism experiment or 'experimentum crucis'.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-zby-k8cz
PID https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:nl:ui:13-n8zy-xh
Metadata Access https://easy.dans.knaw.nl/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=oai:easy.dans.knaw.nl:easy-dataset:56146
Provenance
Creator Nagel, D; Cocquyt, T.
Publisher Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS)
Contributor Brill; Huygens ING
Publication Year 2013
Rights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess; License: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0; http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0
OpenAccess true
Representation
Language English
Resource Type Dataset
Format application/vnd.unity; video/mp4; image/jpeg; Unity Source Files
Discipline History; Humanities