Editing Camera obscura (section)

===500 BC to 500 AD: Earliest written observations===
[[Image:IMG 1650 zonsverduistering Malta.JPG|thumb|Holes in the leaf canopy project images of a [[solar eclipse]] on the ground]]

One of the earliest known written records of a pinhole image is found in the Chinese text called ''[[Mozi (book)|Mozi]]'', dated to the 4th century BC, traditionally ascribed to and named for [[Mozi]] (circa 470 BC-circa 391 BC), a [[History of Science and Technology in China|Chinese]] philosopher and the founder of [[Mohism|Mohist School of Logic]].<ref name="needham4 98">{{cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|title=Science and Civilization in China, vol. IV, part 1: Physics and Physical Technology|url=https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf|access-date=5 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703010030/https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf|archive-date=3 July 2017|page=98|url-status=dead}}</ref> These writings explain how the image in a "collecting-point" or "treasure house"<ref group="note">In the ''Mozi'' passage, a ''camera obscura'' is described as a "collecting-point" or "treasure house" ([[wikt:庫|庫]]); the 18th-century scholar Bi Yuan ({{ill|畢沅|zh|vertical-align=sup}}) suggested this was a misprint for "screen" ([[wikt:㢓|㢓]]).</ref> is inverted by an intersecting point (pinhole) that collects the (rays of) light. Light coming from the foot of an illuminated person gets partly hidden below (i.e., strikes below the pinhole) and partly forms the top of the image. Rays from the head are partly hidden above (i.e., strike above the pinhole) and partly form the lower part of the image.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://paleo-camera.com/ancient-greece/ |title=Ancient Greece |publisher=paleo-camera |date=9 March 2010 |access-date=5 September 2016 |archive-date=1 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101020319/http://paleo-camera.com/ancient-greece/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |date= 2004 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BIL2BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |title= Ghost Images: Cinema of the Afterlife |last= Ruffles |first= Tom |pages= 15–17 |publisher= McFarland |isbn= 9780786420056 |access-date= 9 November 2020 |archive-date= 10 November 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231110061748/https://books.google.com/books?id=BIL2BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status= live }}</ref>

Another early account is provided by [[List of ancient Greek philosophers|Greek philosopher]] [[Aristotle]] (384–322 BC), or possibly a follower of his ideas. Similar to the later 11th-century Middle Eastern scientist [[Alhazen]], Aristotle is also thought to have used ''camera obscura'' for observing [[solar eclipse]]s.<ref name="needham4 98"/> The formation of pinhole images is touched upon as a subject in the work ''[[Problems (Aristotle)|Problems]] – Book XV'', asking: {{blockquote|Why is it that when the sun passes through quadri-laterals, as for instance in wickerwork, it does not produce a figure rectangular in shape but circular?|sign=|source=}} and further on: {{blockquote|Why is it that an eclipse of the sun, if one looks at it through a sieve or through leaves, such as a plane-tree or other broadleaved tree, or if one joins the fingers of one hand over the fingers of the other, the rays are crescent-shaped where they reach the earth? Is it for the same reason as that when light shines through a rectangular peep-hole, it appears circular in the form of a cone?}}

In an attempt to explain the phenomenon, the author described how the light formed two cones; one between the Sun and the aperture and one between the aperture and the Earth. However, the roundness of the image was attributed to the idea that parts of the rays of light (assumed to travel in straight lines) are cut off at the angles in the aperture become so weak that they cannot be noticed.<ref name=lindberg/>

Many philosophers and scientists of the Western world would ponder the contradiction between light travelling in straight lines and the formation of round spots of light behind differently shaped apertures, until it became generally accepted that the circular and crescent-shapes described in the "problem" were pinhole image projections of the sun.

In his book ''[[Euclid's Optics|Optics]]'' (circa 300 BC, surviving in later manuscripts from around 1000 AD), Euclid proposed mathematical descriptions of vision with "lines drawn directly from the eye pass through a space of great extent" and "the form of the space included in our vision is a cone, with its apex in the eye and its base at the limits of our vision."<ref>{{cite book|url=http://philomatica.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Optics-of-Euclid.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150105103442/http://philomatica.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Optics-of-Euclid.pdf |archive-date=2015-01-05 |url-status=live|title=Optics of Euclid}}</ref> Later versions of the text, like [[Ignazio Danti]]'s 1573 annotated translation, would add a description of the ''camera obscura'' principle to demonstrate Euclid's ideas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bonnerweb.de/bilder/pinhole/sonnentaler/sonnentaler.htm|language=de|title=Kleine Geschichte der Lochkamera oder Camera Obscura|access-date=9 September 2016|archive-date=11 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111154505/http://www.bonnerweb.de/bilder/pinhole/sonnentaler/sonnentaler.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>