This paper explains the historical change of Isaac Newton's experimentum crucis, both in its instrumental setup and in its role. The experimentum crucis, which was proposed in Newton's paper in 1672, has long been regarded as a comprehensive experiment capable of demonstrating not only the "different refrangibility" but also "color immutability." Such a conventional account of the experimentum crucis has been reconsidered by recent historians, including Simon Schaffer and Alan E. Shapiro in particular. However, they aim at analyzing the acceptance process of Newtonian optics and do not always pay close attention to the instrumental setup and the role of the experiment. In the present paper, the author will examine the chronological transformation of the two-prism experiment from the time of Newton's early optical study to the age of Newtonianism after his death, and will conclude with the following argument: whereas Newton had originally conceived the experimentum crucis as an experiment that demonstrated multiple conclusions, including "color immutability," he carefully delimited its role only to demonstrate "different refrangibility" when he published his results. Once he became confident about the acceptance of his theory, however, he returned to the original conception that the experiment demonstrated both the propositions about color. Like Newton, popular Newtonian writers in the 18th century pursued the comprehensive experiment symbolizing Newtonian optics.
各種検索
サポート
ヘルプ