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Rasmus Bartholin
Rasmus Bartholin
Rasmus Bartholin
Rasmus Bartholin Born Died Nationality Fields Known for August 13, 1625 Roskilde November 4, 1698 Kopenhagen Danish physics double refraction of a light ray
was a Danish scientist and physician. As part of his studies, he travelled in Europe for ten years. Professor at Copenhagen University, first in Geometry, later in Medicine. He was a younger brother of Thomas Bartholin. Rasmus Bartholin is remembered especially for his discovery (1669) of the double refraction of a light ray by Iceland spar (calcite). He published an accurate description of the phenomenon, but since the physical nature of light was poorly understood at the time, he was unable to explain it. It was only after Thomas Young proposed the wave theory of light, c. 1801 that an explanation became possible. Rasmus Bartholin, Experimenta crystalli islandici disdiaclastici quibus mira & insolita refractio detegitur. Hafniæ 1669. English translation: Experiments with the double refracting Iceland crystal which led to the discovery of a marvelous and strange refraction, tr. by Werner Brandt. Westtown, Pa., 1959. Bartholin was also the first to document the physical characteristics of trisomy 13, Patau Syndrome, in medical literature.
External links
• O’Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Rasmus Bartholin", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
Rasmus Bartholin (Latinized Erasmus Bartholinus; August 13, 1625, Roskilde - † November 4, 1698, Kopenhagen)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasmus_Bartholin" Categories: 1625 births, 1698 deaths, Danish scientists, Danish physicians, University of Copenhagen alumni, University of Copenhagen faculty, Medical educators, Geometry educators, People from Roskilde This page was last modified on 23 March 2009, at 21:56 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
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