Opticks

Opticks is a treatise on light and vision written by Isaac Newton. It was first published in English in 1704. The work is based on a series of experiments Newton conducted between 1670 and 1672. In Opticks, Newton describes his experiments with prisms and demonstrates that white light can be split into its constituent colors, and that these colors can then be recombined to form white light again. He also investigates phenomena such as reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference.

Newton used his experiments to develop his theory of color, which states that colors are not properties of light itself, but rather sensations produced in the mind by different wavelengths of light. He proposed that light is composed of tiny particles, or corpuscles, which travel in straight lines. This corpuscular theory of light was influential for many years, although it was later challenged by wave theories of light.

Opticks also contains a section on "Queries," which are open-ended questions that Newton posed about various aspects of nature, including gravity, the structure of matter, and the nature of light. These Queries stimulated much scientific discussion and research in the centuries that followed. The book is considered a landmark in the history of science, and it had a profound impact on the development of optics and physics.