events
A paper by David Brewster is read to the Royal Society, belatedly announcing his discovery of what we now call the biaxial class of doubly-refracting crystals. On the same day, Augustin-Jean Fresnel signs a "supplement" (submitted four days later) on reflection of polarized light.
Related Wikipedia articles
David Brewster
British astronomer and mathematician (1781–1868)
Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics, mostly concerned with the study of the polarization of light and…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Royal Society
British learned society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science,…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Birefringence
Refractive property of materials
Birefringence, also called double refraction, is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are described as birefringent or birefractive. The…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
January 15
Day of the year
January 15 is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 350 days remain until the end of the year.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
French optical physicist (1788–1827)
Augustin-Jean Fresnel was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, fully supplanting Newton's corpuscular theory, from the late 1830s until the end of the 19th century. He is perhaps better…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Polarization (waves)
Property of waves that can oscillate with more than one orientation
Polarization, or polarisation, is a property of transverse waves which specifies the geometrical orientation of the oscillations. In a transverse wave, the direction of the oscillation is perpendicular to the direction of motion of the wave. One example of a polarized transverse…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)