Jena 2013 – scientific programme

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 1: Ontological Aspects in Physics

AGPhil 1.4: Talk

Monday, February 25, 2013, 15:30–16:00, SR 113

Euler on the correspondence between light waves and the surfaces of bodies: "All surfaces of bodies are similar to tensioned strings" — •Dieter Suisky — Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Following Huygens and making use of the similarity between the perception of sound by hearing and of colours by seeing, Euler completed the wave theory of light by the analysis of the surfaces of bodies. In contrast to Newton’s corpuscular theory, Euler had to develop additionally a model of the surfaces of bodies. Euler claimed that surfaces are similar to tensioned strings whose vibrational motion is excited by the light waves. An early version, included in the manuscript Theses Philosophicae (1749-52), was only recently published, the later version was already published in the Letters to a German Princess.
Euler’s theory of perception and vision will be compared with Berkeley’s New Theory. Analyzing seeing and touching, Berkeley claimed: "It is therefore a direct consequence that there is no idea common to both senses." Euler constructed the missing link by means of the wave theory of light.
The conclusion is that Euler’s theory of light is of considerable espistemological importance because it includes a critical approach to Newton’s and Berkeley’s theories. Furthermore, Euler’s basic hypotheses had been later confirmed by Planck’s assumption of elementary oscillators in the theory of heat radiation and Einstein’s treatment of emission and absorption of light.