Opticks

Opticks is Isaac Newton’s 1704 treatise on light, color, reflection, and refraction. It presents experiments and argues that white light contains rays of different colors.

Prism experiment: An experiment that refracts light through a prism to separate it into a spectrum of colors. Newton used this setup to show that a prism separates colors already present in white light.
Refraction: The change in direction of a wave as it passes between materials with different wave speeds. Refraction is the basic phenomenon behind Newton’s prism and lens investigations.
Isaac Newton: An English mathematician and natural philosopher whose work shaped classical physics and mathematics. Newton wrote and revised the treatise over decades before its publication.
Corpuscular theory of light: A family of theories explaining light as particles or corpuscles traveling through space. Newton’s discussion of light is associated with corpuscular explanations, though his views were not simply particle-only.
Dispersion (optics): The separation of light into different wavelengths because a material refracts them by different amounts. It explains the elongated spectrum produced in Newton’s prism experiments.
Color: The visual attribute by which objects and lights are distinguished through differences in perceived wavelength composition. Newton’s central claim links colors to distinct properties of light rays.
Optical lectures of Isaac Newton: Lectures on optics delivered by Isaac Newton at the University of Cambridge in the 1670s. These lectures formed an early foundation for the investigations later presented in the book.
Wave theory of light: The theory that light propagates as waves rather than solely as particles. It contrasts with the particle-like account that became associated with Newton’s optics.
Refractive index: A measure of how much light slows and bends when it enters a material. Different refractive indices for different colors account for their unequal bending.
White light: Visible light perceived as white, typically composed of a mixture of wavelengths. Newton’s experiments challenged the idea that white light was simple and uniform.

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