Friday, January 27, 2006
Wikipedia Blooper Alert: The Diffraction Grating
It's time once again for one of this blog's copyrighted features: Wikipedia Bloopers!
This is where we set aside time to sift through the vast sea of information on everyone's favorite online encyclopedia and look for contradictions, falsehoods, and other assorted misinformation for you to enjoy.
This week's installment?
The diffraction grating: A commonly used piece of optical equipment in physics labs, this finely grooved surface is used to bend or spread light waves that pass through it, allowing for all manner of interesting experiments. Yes, from spectroscopy to exploring the wave-particle duality of light, everyone loves diffraction gratings.
But who invented this marvelous piece of technology? Wikipedia has the answer!
The main article on diffraction gratings indicates that German scientist and solar linesman extraordinaire Joseph von Fraunhofer invented the first diffraction grating in 1821. The article on Fraunhofer confirms this fact and indicates his role in transforming spectroscopy from a qualitative to a quantitative science. (It also has some really nice pictures of his famous spectral lines.)
However, treat these articles with a measure of caution for there is more to the tale. For you see, I recently learned from a friend attending classes at the University of Pennsylvania that the physics and mathematics departments were housed at a building named after a gentleman named David Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse was born the same year as George Washington (1732), and besides discovering that Venus had an atmosphere and serving as the first director of the U.S. Mint, is listed in his Wikipedia article as inventing the diffraction grating.
Given Rittenhouse's death in 1796, this discovery would predate Fraunhofer by at least two full decades.
Honestly, I'm not sure which side of this optical dilemma to favor. Fraunhofer is the heavy favorite of all the professional spectrometry fans out there...but the patriot in me says we need more American innovation in our history books.
Perhaps Wikipedia will resolve the dilemma for me eventually by retracting the offending pseudo-fact from the appropriate article.
Until then, keep your eyes peeled. If there are bloopers to be discovered in Wikipedia...they will be reported.
It's time once again for one of this blog's copyrighted features: Wikipedia Bloopers!
This is where we set aside time to sift through the vast sea of information on everyone's favorite online encyclopedia and look for contradictions, falsehoods, and other assorted misinformation for you to enjoy.
This week's installment?
The diffraction grating: A commonly used piece of optical equipment in physics labs, this finely grooved surface is used to bend or spread light waves that pass through it, allowing for all manner of interesting experiments. Yes, from spectroscopy to exploring the wave-particle duality of light, everyone loves diffraction gratings.
But who invented this marvelous piece of technology? Wikipedia has the answer!
The main article on diffraction gratings indicates that German scientist and solar linesman extraordinaire Joseph von Fraunhofer invented the first diffraction grating in 1821. The article on Fraunhofer confirms this fact and indicates his role in transforming spectroscopy from a qualitative to a quantitative science. (It also has some really nice pictures of his famous spectral lines.)
However, treat these articles with a measure of caution for there is more to the tale. For you see, I recently learned from a friend attending classes at the University of Pennsylvania that the physics and mathematics departments were housed at a building named after a gentleman named David Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse was born the same year as George Washington (1732), and besides discovering that Venus had an atmosphere and serving as the first director of the U.S. Mint, is listed in his Wikipedia article as inventing the diffraction grating.
Given Rittenhouse's death in 1796, this discovery would predate Fraunhofer by at least two full decades.
Honestly, I'm not sure which side of this optical dilemma to favor. Fraunhofer is the heavy favorite of all the professional spectrometry fans out there...but the patriot in me says we need more American innovation in our history books.
Perhaps Wikipedia will resolve the dilemma for me eventually by retracting the offending pseudo-fact from the appropriate article.
Until then, keep your eyes peeled. If there are bloopers to be discovered in Wikipedia...they will be reported.
