Timeline

By mteitsma
  • 400 BCE

    Plato's Emission Theory of Vision

    We see because our eyes emit vision beams
  • 300 BCE

    Euclid's writings on reflection and refraction

    Euclid wrote Optica, and theorized that light travelled in straight lines
  • 984

    Ibn Sahl on curved mirrors and bending light

    He introduced the mathematical equivalent of Snell's Law
  • 1021

    Ibn Al-Haytham and Intromissionist Theory

    Ibn Al-Haytham theorized that vision works because light rays entre the eye, instead of the eye emitting light.
  • 1250

    Roger Bacon and Reflection

    Roger Bacon discovers that light reflects from objects rather than being emitted by them

  • Kepler and Light Propogation

    Kepler described how the eye focuses light and how light propagates (expands) the further it gets away from a source
  • Snell's Law

    Snell's Law

    First described by Ibn Sahl, this law mathematically shows how light is refracted through different mediums
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snell%27s_law