ENGLISH

History of light and color

By Sean F. Johnston

Book information

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Year
2001
ISBN
0750307544, 9780750307543, 9780585488271
Open Library ID
OL7971112M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
3 MB (2633799 bytes)
Edition
1st
Pages
292\292
Topic
Physics
Library
Kolxo3
Scanned
yes
Time added
2009-07-20 03:45:11

Description

This book is about how light was made to count. It explores a seemingly simple question: How was the brightness of light-casually judged by everyone but seldom considered a part of science before the 20th century-transformed into a measurable and trustworthy quantity? Why did the description of colour become meaningful to artists, dyers, industrialists and a handful of scientists? Seeking answers requires the exploration of territory in the history, sociology and philosophy of science. Lightwasmade to count as a quantifiable entity at the same time as it came to count for something in human terms. Measuring the intensity of light was fraught with difficulties closely bound up with human physiology, contentious technologies and scientific sub-cultures.

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