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''The theory attributed here to Plato was actually espoused by Ptolemy .''
Plato (c. 427 BC – c. 347 BC ) concocted the theory of Refraction in the dialogue Timaeus . He suggested that due to changes in velocity, light changes its path when it passes from one material to another with a different Index Of Refraction , such as from air to water or from water to glass. He formulated a law to describe the relationship between the Angle Of Incidence and the Angle Of Refraction (what we might think of now as the incoming and outgoing Light Beam s). He even formulated a procedure by which one might measure these angles in various situations, involving a basin of water or a piece of glass. In his treatise, he helpfully supplies a table which shows how the observed angles match exactly what his law predicts. It is likely, however, that Plato never actually performed his '' Thought Experiment '', because he would not have gotten the results he reports (which are an ''exact'' match, down to the last decimal place, to his theory). Plato's theory of refraction is actually quite incorrect, and differs by an easily detectable amount from the modern theory of refraction. He essentially used his "experiment" as an illustration of his theory, not as a test of its validity. His assertions, like those of Aristotle, went untested by his peers and remained unchallenged for centuries. It was the Egypt ian scientist Ibn al Haythen (known in Western Europe as Alhazen ) ( 965 - 1040 ), who finally discounted it with a mixture of logic and experimentation. His studies of light, published in the book "Optics" in 1015 to 1021 , during the era of the Moorish Empire , are possibly the earliest work to use the Scientific Method and were very influential in later studies of light. It was translated into Latin around 1270 , which brought this knowledge to Western Europe. Other Arab scholars influenced the development of science in similar manner, be it through their own work or through the works of Antiquity that the Arab World preserved.
