The Forgotten Origin of the Scientific Method

↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓

500 years before the Scientific Revolution, the mathematician Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham spent hours in a dark room studying the light that filtered in. Not only did he revolutionize how we literally see the world, he pioneered the scientific method that is now the backbone of modern science.

0:00 Introduction
0:41 What is a camera obscura?
1:48 The mathematician who tried to dam the Nile
3:08 The origin of optics
3:56 Ancient ways of knowing
6:39 The birth of modern science
7:38 From hypothesis to experiment
8:44 How al-Haytham changed science history
10:13 Conclusion
11:40 Extras!

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[besmart]

Scientists: Crawling around in the dark looking for answers since 1000 CE

[sumthin]

Fun fact: the term “camera” in European languages came from the Arabic word “ Qumra, ” which means the closed dark place, and it is a word referring to the “dark room” that Ibn al-Haytham used in his visual experiments. Ibn al-Haytham was the first to present a description of the camera in the course of his study of science.

[physicsstudent]

Ibn haytham famous quote "The duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and ... attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency."

[Figgy]

It took me until nearly the end of the video to realize when you said it's the dark origins of the scientific method you actually meant the dark origins. I'd been waiting the whole time for some devious fact drops that weren't coming XD

[mikeharrison]

Thanks for this. I often have arguments with fundamentalist Christians who can't allow people working in the Muslim world any agency in science, maths, etc. They claim that those workers only copied the Greeks, etc. No matter what I bring up, nothing can get through their armour. Jim Al Khalili (a British physicist of Iraqi origin) has written a great book called “Pathfinders", and there's a ton of other material around now.

[muhammadfadhilnurhafizwang]

Dude was put in a dark room feigning insanity and came out enlightened. If it was me, I'd most likely went insane for real

[semregob]

The Islamic golden age was truly a phenomena, even after the burning of the great libraries of Baghdad at the hands of the Tatars we still have a lot of science rooted in that era. truly impressive.

[bukanzoro]

waiting for the Indian comment "Indians discovered that thousands of years

[alialtuma]

Great episode! We learned (as Arab pupils) a little bit about Ibn Al Haytham at school, but there was more here about him to learn.

[NewMessage]

I was devastated to find out Plato did not, in fact, invent the plate.
Gutted.

[Stewie-Griffin]

Fun fact Ibn Al-Haytham portrait is on the Iraqi Dinar and he was born in Basra southern Iraq.

[FloozieOne]

What a great episode. So, among all the mad scientists that have existed (and still do), the one who only pretended to be mad set the stage for the scientific method and all true science since his time.

[mosaka]

Worth mentioning is that Ibn al haitham was freed by the the wife of the ruler (Sit Almulk) whom was originally a Roman concuban. Also back then whoever published something got paid for it except Ibn Alhaitham. He refused to get paid because he believed science is a human right and should be reachable by all. He suffered a lot with rulers born in Basrah(Iraq) ran away from Basrah to Aleppo (Syria) because he refused to build a palace for the ruler. Prisoned in Cairo then freed and kept researching until he died.

Edit: You guys are absolutely right it was Sit Almulk I edited it. Sorry for the huge mistakes

[Eddy-Cool]

one thing I absolutely love about the Islamic golden age is that you are not forced to choose a single subject/field and stick to it for the rest of your life. something peeks your interest; you go learn it, research it, and hopefully give the world a great invention! you can be a theologian, philosopher, astronomer, doctor, historian, anything under the sun all at the same time!! this type of intellectual freedom is unthinkable in today's society. God, I'm so born in the wrong century!!

[Asitiseveryday]

The only thing I knew about this guy that he was behind the root idea of camera's invention.. but I didn't know about his hard work behind this . Amazing

[majestictaleb]

to clarify the misconception
أبو عَلْي الحَسَن بن الحَسَن بن الهَيْثَم البصري
Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham was a medieval mathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age from present-day Iraq,
●Born : Jul1, 965AD, Basrah, Iraq
●Died:Mar6, 1040, Cairo, Egypt

[JCtheMusicMan_]

Great presentation! The moral of the story is, if you want to make ground breaking discoveries you must be locked in a room until you get bored enough to figure something out😁

[mohammedkhaleel]

Some of the people who translated his works, they mispronounced the word Qumra that he mentioned to Camera...
He was the first person explaining how the human eyes work and how we see the things
May Allah bless his soul

[ZZ-vlnd]

Glad a big channel like this giving credit to Arabs /Muslims for the scientific advances they contributed to humanity.

[macsarcule]

Awesome video! 😃

Would love to see a couple that next dive into the importance of the peer review / repeated experimentation by others, and also one on the super important experimental mindset of assuming the null hypothesis.

Love this channel!