Leibniz's dynamics and optics (Q1279513)

The article deals with Leibniz's foundation of the law of refraction that had previously been discovered by Snellius, Descartes and Fermat. Disturbed by the fact that his predecessors had derived the same law from contradicting assumptions about the dependence of the velocity of light upon the density of transparent media, Leibniz presented a solution of the refraction problem that was based on a dynamical model combining a new metaphysics with a new mathematics, namely the infinitesimal methods described in his famous paper \textit{Nova methodus pro maximis et minimis}. According to the author, Leibniz's synthesis of dynamics and optics is characteristic of the transition from geometrical to physical optics in the late 17th century. This was the beginning of a new physics in which Descartes's mechanical models were no longer the only legitimate explanation of natural phenomena.