Skip to content

Quotes from The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics — Carl Benjamin Boyer

1906–1976 United States

← All quotes by Carl Benjamin Boyer

11 quotes

Ptolemy left in his Optics, the earliest surviving table of angles of refraction from air to water.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

In myth and legend the rainbow has been regarded variously as a harbinger of misfortune and as a sign of good luck.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

The conception of the rainbow as a pathway or bridge has been widespread.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

In Swabia and Bavaria saints pass by the rainbow from heaven to earth; while in Polynesia this is the route of the gods themselves.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

Associations of the rainbow and the milky way are frequent.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

A Hebrew belief asserted that if Yahweh lays aside his bow and hangs it in the clouds, this is a sign that his anger has subsided.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

In the Austrian Alps the souls of the righteous are said to ascend the bow to heaven; and in New Zealand the dead chieftains are believed to pass along it to reach their new home.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

North American Indians were among those who thought of the rainbow as the Pathway of Souls, an interpretation found in many other places.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

By many, a rainbow appearing at the birth of a child is taken to be a favorable sign; but in Slavonic accounts a glance from the fay who sits at the foot of the rainbow, combing herself, brings death.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

Robert Grosseteste … was born at the decisive moment when Greek and Arabic science became accessible in Latin versions.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

Descartes maintained his confidence in the instantaneity of light. … Yet in his derivation of the law of refraction, Descartes reasoned that light travelled faster in a dense medium than in one less dense. He seems to have had no qualms about comparing infinite magnitudes!

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Carl Benjamin Boyer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.