Wave Phenomena
Unravelling the unintuitive properties of waves has been a historic global endeavour across the world. Optics especially has a fascinating lineage which can be followed from Greece to the Islamic world and back to Europe.
Wave Equation and PDEs
Cathleen Morawetz - worked on PDEs governing fluid flow
Hertha Ayrton - studied ripple marks in sand and water
Karen Uhlenbeck - worked on geometric PDEs and gauge theory
Optics
George Carruthers - invented the Far Ultraviolet Camera/ Spectrograph
Jagadish Chandra Bose - discovered mm length electromagnetic waves
Edward Bouchet - researched geometrical optics
Donna Strickland - developed chirped pulse amplification for lasers
Ibn Sahl - first accurate description of ‘Snell’s’ Law
In 10th century Persia, the heart of the Islamic world during the Golden Age, physicist and mathematician Ibn Sahl was recording details of his optics experiments (On Burning Mirrors and Lenses, 984). Ibn Sahl’s findings were rediscovered in the 1990s, and included an accurate law of refraction. On Burning Mirrors and Lenses explains how Ibn Sahl used biconvex lenses to focus parallel rays of light through crystals and into air. This experiment successfully proved the first accurate description of ‘Snell’s law’ in recorded history. 612 later Harriot derive the same law in Europe.
Further reading
Darrigol, O. (2012). A History of Optics From Greek Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century.
Pines, S. (1986). Studies in Arabic Versions of Greek Texts and in Mediaeval Science (Vol. 2). Brill Publisher.