Day 46

Al Hazen (Ibn al-Haytham) (c. 965—1039)

Thus the question what it means that bodies are transparent, so that light shines through them, is a part of physics. But the discussion of how light travels in them is part of mathematics. Hence the discus­sion of light rays and transparent matter, must consist of both physics and mathematics.

From ‘Abhandlung uber das Licht’ edited by J. Baarmann, Zeitschr. d. deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 36 1882, translated by M. Schwarz and cited by S. Sambursky in Physical Thought from the Presocratics to the Quantum Physicists (Hutchinson, London 1974) p. 135.