Who is the first scientist of physics?

Answer 1

Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (al-Basri as he is called) who was an arab. He was born in Basra, after his birth place in the city of Basra, under the rule of the Buyid dynasty of the Persian Empire and now part of Iraq in the year A.D. 965-1039, and spent most of his life in Cairo, Egypt. He was the first scientist, and made significant contributions to the principles of optics as well as anatomy, astronomy, engineering, mathemetics, medicine, ophthalmology, philosophy, physics, psychology, visual perception and science.

ibn al-Haytham, is regarded as 'the father of modern optics'. He proved the modern theory of vision which correctly explained the experiments on optics, including lenses, mirrors, refraction, reflection and dispersion of light into its spectrum. He described the finite speed and rectilinear propagation of light, and argued that rays of light are streams of corpuscular energy particles travelling in straight lines by studying binocular vision and Moon illusion. Due to his formulation of quantitative, empirical and experimental approach to physics and science,he is considered the pioneer of modern science. Author Bradley describes ibn al-Haytham as the 'first scientist'. Among his other achievements, he gave the first correct analysis and description, of camera obscura, clarafied Fermat's principle and the concept of inertia (Newton's first law of motion) and developed the concept of momentum.

Rosanna Gorini notes that "according to the majority of the historians al-Haytham was the pioneer of the modern scientific method".

Answer 2

The early Greek philosopher Thales is often considered one of the first scientists of physics. He used observation and reasoning to explain natural phenomena and proposed that water was the basic substance of the world.