Newton's prisms and the Uses of experiment

If you need definitions of the different types of exercises or activities to be submitted on moodle, look at the User's Guide..

The text below is a 'read-only' question; it is meant to give visitors an idea of possible exercises. Registered students should click on the 'Submission' button available to them in order to move to the exercise page and write or attach their contribution.

NEWTON'S PRISMS AND THE USES OF EXPERIMENT

First visit the website Georgian Cities :

How to study a text and find out the relevant documentation relative to its notions, concepts and allusions: each assignment consists in writing about 300 words answering the following questions . You may present your plan differently as long as you provide an answer to the following 9 questions :

1) Explain the subtitles:

'Instruments are in truth reified theorems' (Gaston Bachelard, 1933).

'Perhaps,said the Marchioness, Nature has reserved the merit of demonstrationg Truth to the English Prisms; that is, to those by whose means she at first discovered herself.' (Francesco Algarotti, 1737).

2) Find out who Newton was and what is the "experimentum crucis" referred to in the text.

Use dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and the Internet.

Visit the sites:

• http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/newton

• http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/enlightenment

Report about what you learnt on Newton and his experiments.

3) Did you find more sites relevant to Newton? Which do you consider best and why? When would you say a site is scientifically reliable? Account for your answer.

4) Find out :

• What the Royal Society was?

• Who Robert Boyle was?

5) Comment on "Doctrine" versus "experiment" : are instruments always reliable ?

6) What is the importance of "replicability"?

7) What is "experimental philosophy"? What is natural philosophy?

8) What is the role of instruments in bringing about changes in scientific beliefs?

9) If you had to prepare for an exposé on the subject, give 5 titles of books, articles, or internet sites that would constitute your bibliography.