On the Cause of the Rainbow
E870095
On the Cause of the Rainbow is a medieval scientific treatise that analyzes the physical and optical principles behind the formation of rainbows.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| On the Cause of the Rainbow canonical | 2 |
| Robert Grosseteste's De colore | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10547756 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On the Cause of the Rainbow Context triple: [Qusta ibn Luqa, workAuthored, On the Cause of the Rainbow]
-
A.
An Account of Some Cases of the Production of Colours
"An Account of Some Cases of the Production of Colours" is a scientific paper by Thomas Young that presents key experimental evidence for the wave theory of light and explains color phenomena through interference.
-
B.
Unweaving the Rainbow
Unweaving the Rainbow is a popular science book by Richard Dawkins that explores how scientific understanding deepens, rather than diminishes, our sense of wonder about the natural world.
-
C.
An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision
An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision is a philosophical treatise by George Berkeley that explores how we perceive distance, size, and spatial properties through vision, arguing that such perceptions are learned rather than innate.
-
D.
Traité de la lumière
Traité de la lumière is a seminal 1690 scientific treatise that presents Christiaan Huygens’ wave theory of light, including the principle now known as Huygens’ principle.
-
E.
Theory of Colours
Theory of Colours is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s influential 1810 treatise that presents a phenomenological and psychological approach to color, challenging the purely mathematical framework of Newtonian optics.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On the Cause of the Rainbow Target entity description: On the Cause of the Rainbow is a medieval scientific treatise that analyzes the physical and optical principles behind the formation of rainbows.
-
A.
An Account of Some Cases of the Production of Colours
"An Account of Some Cases of the Production of Colours" is a scientific paper by Thomas Young that presents key experimental evidence for the wave theory of light and explains color phenomena through interference.
-
B.
Unweaving the Rainbow
Unweaving the Rainbow is a popular science book by Richard Dawkins that explores how scientific understanding deepens, rather than diminishes, our sense of wonder about the natural world.
-
C.
An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision
An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision is a philosophical treatise by George Berkeley that explores how we perceive distance, size, and spatial properties through vision, arguing that such perceptions are learned rather than innate.
-
D.
Traité de la lumière
Traité de la lumière is a seminal 1690 scientific treatise that presents Christiaan Huygens’ wave theory of light, including the principle now known as Huygens’ principle.
-
E.
Theory of Colours
Theory of Colours is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s influential 1810 treatise that presents a phenomenological and psychological approach to color, challenging the purely mathematical framework of Newtonian optics.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
medieval scientific treatise
ⓘ
optics treatise ⓘ |
| about |
color separation in rainbows
ⓘ
dispersion of light ⓘ geometry of light rays in a rainbow ⓘ reflection of light in water droplets ⓘ refraction of light in water droplets ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
analyze optical behavior of light in the atmosphere
ⓘ
provide a physical explanation of the rainbow ⓘ |
| circulation | manuscript tradition ⓘ |
| contextOf | medieval development of optical theory ⓘ |
| describes |
formation of rainbows
ⓘ
interaction of light with water droplets ⓘ optical principles of rainbows ⓘ physical principles of rainbows ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
natural philosophy
ⓘ
optics ⓘ physics ⓘ |
| genre | scientific literature ⓘ |
| hasLanguage | Latin ⓘ |
| hasPart |
analysis of angles of incidence and refraction
ⓘ
analysis of color order in the rainbow ⓘ discussion of primary rainbow ⓘ discussion of secondary rainbow ⓘ |
| hasTopic |
mathematical description of optical effects
ⓘ
relationship between theory and observation ⓘ scientific explanation of natural phenomena ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Aristotelian natural philosophy
ⓘ
linked to:
Aristotelian physics
medieval scholasticism ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
learned readers
ⓘ
students of natural philosophy ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
atmospheric phenomena
ⓘ
light reflection ⓘ light refraction ⓘ optics ⓘ rainbow ⓘ |
| studies |
conditions for visibility of rainbows
ⓘ
dependence of rainbow on sun elevation ⓘ position of observer relative to sun and rain ⓘ |
| timeOfOrigin | medieval period ⓘ |
| typeOfWork | scholarly treatise ⓘ |
| usedIn |
history of optics research
ⓘ
history of science studies ⓘ |
| workPeriod | Middle Ages ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: On the Cause of the Rainbow Description of subject: On the Cause of the Rainbow is a medieval scientific treatise that analyzes the physical and optical principles behind the formation of rainbows.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: On the Cause of the Rainbow