Did you know…?

Next time you sit on a plane, look at the clock, go to the opticians or do some maths remember it is Muslims who invented and discovered these.

Invention/Contribution	What We Are Told	Well... Actually
Flight	The first mention of man in flight was by Roger Bacon & Leonardo da Vinci who drew flying apparatus?	Ibn Firnas of Spain constructed & tested a flying machine in 800A.D. (1) Roger Bacon & Leonardo da Vinci studied this work and copied it 700 years later.
Clocks	Until the 14th Century the only type of clock was a water clock built in 1335 in Milan Italy. This was the first weight driven clock.	During the 9th century, Ibn Firnas of Islamic Spain, according to Will Durant, invented a watch-like device, which kept accurate time.(2)
Optics	Isaac Newton was the founder of optics. The first edition of Newton’s Optics was published, in English, in 1704 (London: Smith & Walford).	Abu 'Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham a mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the principles of optics and the use of scientific experiments in the 10th century (4)
Decimal Fraction	Developed by Simon Steven a Dutch man in 1589	Al Kashi from Iran had a book called key to arithmetic in the 15th Century. (5)

Reference:

1. The University of Houston's College of Engineering.
2. ibid
3. Britannica New edition.
4. The Columbia Encyclopaedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.
5. Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990).

For more details visit www.therevival.co.uk