All Was Light; An Introduction to Newton's Opticks

Hall, A. Rupert

ISBN 10: 0198539851 / ISBN 13: 9780198539858

Published by Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993

About this Item

24 x 16 cm. Octavo. 252pp. Green cloth in dust jacket. Light toning to the edges of jacket flaps. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 67179

Bibliographic Details

• Title: All Was Light; An Introduction to Newton's Opticks
• Publisher: Clarendon Press, Oxford
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198539851
• ISBN 13: 9780198539858
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Physics

About this title

Synopsis

Opticks, Newton's most popular book, is a complex work of genius and the fruit of forty years of thought and investigation. Newton devoted various periods of experimentation to this final expression of his life's work and drew on the results of successive interactions with other scientists and thinkers. This introduction to his book disentangles the different layers of Newton's thought processes in terms of his contemporary influences, and details the development of the final text. It explains problems that arose from Newton's changing ideas during the course of the book's long preparation, touching on such controversial issues of the time as the concepts of atomism, force, and the aether. The author also looks in detail at the way Newton has been interpreted both at home and abroad. This readable, non-mathematical book serves as an excellent introduction to Newton and the great achievement of Opticks and will fascinate students and general readers interested in natural philosophy and the history of science.

About the Author

Rupert Hall, Emeritus Professor of History of Science and Technology, Imperial College, London.