Who was considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity, and was one the first to describe specular reflection?
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Specular reflection Specular reflection, also known as regular reflection, is the mirror-like reflection of waves, such as light, from a surface. In this process, each incident ray is reflected, with the reflected ray having the same angle to the surface normal as the incident ray. The result is that an image reflected by the surface is reproduced in mirror-like ("specular") fashion. The law of reflection states that for each incident ray the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, and the incident, normal, and reflected directions are coplanar. This behavior was first described by Hero of Alexandria (AD c. 10–70). It may be contrasted with diffuse reflection, in which light is scattered away from the surface in a range of directions rather than just one.
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Hero of Alexandria Hero of Alexandria ( ; Greek: Ἥρων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς , "Heron ho Alexandreus"; also known as Heron of Alexandria ; c. 10 AD – c. 70 AD) was a mathematician and engineer who was active in his native city of Alexandria, Roman Egypt. He is considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition.
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Sextus Empiricus Sextus Empiricus (Greek: Σέξτος Ἐμπειρικός ; c. 160 – c. 210 AD, n.b., dates uncertain), was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman Pyrrhonism.
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Proclus Proclus Lycaeus ( ; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485 AD), called the Successor (Greek Πρόκλος ὁ Διάδοχος , "Próklos ho Diádokhos"), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers (see Damascius). He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism. He stands near the end of the classical development of philosophy, and was very influential on Western medieval philosophy (Greek and Latin).
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Melissus of Samos Melissus of Samos ( ; Greek: Μέλισσος ὁ Σάμιος ; fl. 5th century BC) was the third and last member of the ancient school of Eleatic philosophy, whose other members included Zeno and Parmenides. Little is known about his life except that he was the commander of the Samian fleet shortly before the Peloponnesian War. Melissus’ contribution to philosophy was a treatise of systematic arguments supporting Eleatic philosophy. Like Parmenides, he argued that reality is ungenerated, indestructible, indivisible, changeless, and motionless. In addition, he sought to show that reality is wholly unlimited, and infinitely extended in all directions; and since existence is unlimited, it must also be one.
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Callippus Callippus ( ; Ancient Greek: Κάλλιππος ; c. 370 BC – c. 300 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician.
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Antiphon brother of Plato Antiphon (Ancient Greek: Ἀντιφῶν ) was a man of ancient Greece who was the youngest brother of the philosopher Plato. His name the philosopher immortalized in his dialogue "Parmenides". The father of Plato's wife was likewise named Antiphon.
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Western philosophy Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with Hellenic (i.e. Greek) philosophy of the Pre-Socratics such as Thales (c. 624 – c. 546 BC) and Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC), and eventually covering a large area of the globe. The word "philosophy" itself originated from the Hellenic: "philosophia" (φιλοσοφία), literally, "the love of wisdom" (φιλεῖν "philein", "to love" and σοφία "sophia", "wisdom").
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Apollonius Cronus Apollonius Cronus (Greek: Ἀπολλώνιος Κρόνος ; fl. 4th century BCE) from Cyrene was a philosopher of the Megarian school.
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Candidus (floruit 793–802) Candidus was the name given to the Anglo-Saxon Wizo or Witto by Alcuin, whose scholar he was and with whom he went in 782 to Gaul. He is author of several philosophical texts wrongly attributed by earlier scholars to the benedictinian monk Brun Candidus of Fulda, the author of the vita of Abott Eigil of Fulda. But recent research into the manuscript tradition furnishing clear evidence attested the authorship of Candidus Wizo, the learned disciple of Alcuin. Based on his deep knowledge of the works of Saint Augustine of Hippo he tried to give proof of god’s existence, to demonstrate that the incorporeal nature of god is conceivable only by means of the spiritual eye and excludes any possibility of viewing him by means of the corporeal eyes, and to elucidate the problem of the incarnation explaining its need by the weakness of the human cognition. At the palace school he was tutor to Gisla, the sister, and Rodtruda, the daughter of Charlemagne. When Alcuin went to Tours (796), Candidus was his successor as master of the palace school. Alcuin's esteem for Candidus is shown by his dedicating his commentary on Ecclesiastes to his friends Onias, Fredegisus, and Candidus.
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Hippocrates of Chios Hippocrates of Chios (Greek: Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Χῖος ) was an ancient Greek mathematician, geometer, and astronomer who lived c. 470 – c. 410 BC.
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Eurytus (Pythagorean) Eurytus ( ; Greek: Εὔρυτος ; fl. 400 BC), was an eminent Pythagorean philosopher who Iamblichus in one passage describes as a native of Croton, while in another, he enumerates him among the Tarentine Pythagoreans. He was a disciple of Philolaus, and Diogenes Laërtius mentions him among the teachers of Plato, though this statement is very doubtful. It is uncertain whether Eurytus was the author of any work, unless we suppose that the fragment in Stobaeus, which is there ascribed to one Eurytus, belongs to this Eurytus.
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Chaldean Oracles The Chaldean Oracles have survived as fragmentary texts from the 2nd century AD, and consist mainly of Hellenistic commentary on a single mystery-poem (which may have been compilations from several oracular sources, considering the random subject changes) that was believed to have originated in Chaldea. They appear to be a syncretic combination of Neoplatonic elements with others that were Persian or Babylonian in origin. Later Neoplatonists, such as Iamblichus and Proclus, rated them highly. The 4th-century Emperor Julian suggests in his "Hymn to the Magna Mater" that he was an initiate of the God of the Seven Rays, and was an adept of its teachings. When Christian Church Fathers or other Late Antiquity writers credit "the Chaldeans", they are probably referring to this tradition.
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Hegias Hegias (Greek: Ἡγίας ) was a Neoplatonist philosopher who lived in the 5th and 6th centuries. He may have been the great-grandson or great-great-grandson of Plutarch of Athens, the founder of the Neoplatonist Academy in Athens. Hegias studied under Proclus at the school in Athens, when Proclus was an old man c. 480. Proclus showed him great favour, and considered him worthy of hearing his lectures on the Chaldean Oracles.
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Plato Plato ( ; Greek: Πλάτων "Plátōn", ] in Classical Attic; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition. Unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Plato's entire work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years. Others believe that the oldest extant manuscript dates to around AD 895, 1100 years after Plato's death. This makes it difficult to know exactly what Plato wrote.
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Satyrus the Peripatetic Satyrus (Greek: Σάτυρος ) of Callatis was a distinguished peripatetic philosopher and historian, whose biographies ("Lives") of famous people are frequently referred to by Diogenes Laërtius and Athenaeus. He came from Callatis Pontica, as we learn from a Herculaneum papyrus. He lived earlier than the reign of Ptolemy VI Philometor (181–146 BC) when his "Lives" were epitomized by Heraclides Lembus, probably during the 3rd century BC. Athenaeus frequently refers to him as a Peripatetic, but his connection to the Peripatetic school is otherwise unknown. His biographies dealt with many eminent people including kings (Dionysius the Younger, Philip), statesmen (Alcibiades), orators (Demosthenes), poets (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides), and philosophers (Bias of Priene, Chilon of Sparta, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Zeno of Elea, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Diogenes, Anaxarchus, Stilpo). He also wrote on the population of Alexandria, and a work "On Characters" (Περὶ χαρακτήρων ). Fragments of his biography of the Athenian dramatist Euripides were found at the end of a papyrus scroll discovered at Oxyrhynchus in the early twentieth century.
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Menaechmus Menaechmus (Greek: Μέναιχμος , 380–320 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician and geometer born in Alopeconnesus in the Thracian Chersonese, who was known for his friendship with the renowned philosopher Plato and for his apparent discovery of conic sections and his solution to the then-long-standing problem of doubling the cube using the parabola and hyperbola.
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Olexander Smakula Olexander Smakula (Ukrainian: Олександр Теодорович Смакула , Russian: Александр Теодорович Смакула ) (1900, Dobrovody, Austria–Hungary, today Ukraine – 17 May 1983, Auburn, Massachusetts, USA), also described in English as Alexander Smakula, was a Ukrainian physicist known for the invention of anti-reflective lens coatings based on optical interference.
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Evangelista Torricelli Evangelista Torricelli (] ,    ); 15 October 1608 – 25 October 1647) was an Italian physicist and mathematician, best known for his invention of the barometer, but is also known for his advances in optics and work on the method of indivisibles.
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Pre-Socratic philosophy Pre-Socratic philosophy is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates and schools contemporary to Socrates that were not influenced by him. In Classical antiquity, the Presocratic philosophers were called "physiologoi" (Greek: φυσιόλογοι ; in English, physical or natural philosophers). Aristotle called them "physikoi" ("physicists", after "physis", "nature") because they sought natural explanations for phenomena, as opposed to the earlier "theologoi" (theologians), whose philosophical basis was supernatural. Diogenes Laërtius divides the "physiologoi" into two groups: Ionian, led by Anaximander, and the Italiote, led by Pythagoras.
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Analogy of the divided line The Analogy of the Divided Line (Greek: γραμμὴ δίχα τετμημένη ) is presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in the "Republic" (509d–511e). It is written as a dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates, in which the latter further elaborates upon the immediately preceding Analogy of the Sun at the former's request. Socrates asks Glaucon to not only envision this unequally bisected line but to imagine further bisecting each of the two segments. Socrates explains that the four resulting segments represent four separate 'affections' (παθήματα) of the psyche. The lower two sections are said to represent the visible while the higher two are said to represent the intelligible. These affections are described in succession as corresponding to increasing levels of reality and truth from conjecture (εἰκασία) to belief () to thought (διάνοια) and finally to understanding (). Furthermore this Analogy not only elaborates a theory of the psyche but also presents metaphysical and epistemological views.
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History of spectroscopy The history of spectroscopy began in the 17th century. Advances in optics, specifically prisms, enabled systematic observations of the solar spectrum. Isaac Newton first applied the word "spectrum" to describe the rainbow of colors that combine to form white light. During the early 1800s, Joseph von Fraunhofer made experimental advances with dispersive spectrometers that enabled spectroscopy to become a more precise and quantitative scientific technique. Since then, spectroscopy has played and continues to play a significant role in chemistry, physics and astronomy.