Source — Isaac Newton, “A Letter … containing his New Theory about Light and Colors,” Philosophical Transactions 80, 19 February 1671/2, pp. 3075–3087. Transcription — Newton Project, University of Oxford. https://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00006 Checked 14 September 2026.
Experiment
Newton describes darkening a room and admitting sunlight through a small opening. A prism produced an elongated spectrum. He investigated possible effects of glass thickness, aperture size, irregularities in glass, and incident rays. He then used two pierced boards and another prism to compare refraction of light selected from different parts of the spectrum. His account argues that sunlight contains rays with different refrangibility.
Use in Text Adventures
Newton’s account describes two pierced boards and two prisms. A scene with one screen and one prism simplifies that apparatus. Rooms, characters, dialogue, and puzzles may be invented for play. Compare each scene with this account to distinguish documented apparatus and observations from invented details.
Questions
What alternative explanations did Newton test? Which apparatus details does this game omit? What can a repeated observation support, and what would need further evidence?