Controlled experimental method (Alhazen)
Método experimental controlado (óptica de Alhacén)
- Date
- c. 1021 · confidence high
- Place
- Cairo, Egypt
- Credited to
- Ibn al-Haytham
- People
- 👤 Alhacén965–1038
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A systematic procedure of hypothesis, reproducible instrumental experiment and mathematical verification, applied by Alhazen to reflection and refraction. The methodological basis of modern science.
Historians debate the extent to which Alhazen was 'the first scientist'; priority for the experimental method is also attributed to Grosseteste or Bacon.
What it led to
- the Oxford school of optics (Grosseteste, Bacon) and Witelo's Perspectiva
- the optics of Kepler and Descartes and Snell's law
- the concept of science as an experimental and mathematical practice
Built on
Made possible
- Refracting telescope1608
- Kepler's optics