Natural Science - Year I

Unit 20: Arab Science and Optics

Preparation

• History Web Lecture: The history lecture summarizes six centuries of extraordinary achievements by philosophers of a civilization that stretched from Spain to India at its greatest extent. Emphasize that this is just the tip of the iceberg in the study of the contributions made by these men to European science, since many of their works, including their commentaries on Greek sources, were translated into Latin and became the fundamental texts of the early European universities.
• Science Web Lecture: We look today at the concepts of geometric optics, which considers the reflection and refraction paths of light a though it were a beam traveling in a straight line and bending only at the interface between media, such as air and water. Arab scientists emphasized the use of mathematical tools in investigating light and lay the groundwork for the eventual revolution in natural science in Europe.
• Homework: Again, Mastery Exercises focus on terminology and concepts: students should understand the basic terms used to describe light phenomena, and how the concepts are related.
• Discussion: Students will present reports on individual Islamic philosophers and compare accomplishments over the six century time period we are rushing through. We'll pay some attention to how ideas change in translation, and how commentary by the Jewish and Arab philosophers both helped and hindered reception of classical Greek Philosophy in Europe.

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