Talk:Snell's law
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It would be nice to spell Snel's name correctly (i.e., with a single "l"). His name is "Snel" in his native language, or "Snellius" in Latin. The common spelling "Snell" is a solecism committed by people who know neither Dutch nor Latin.
Perhaps it would also be wise to point out that Snel was not the *original* discoverer; the law was first found by Thomas Harriot, about 1600 -- two decades before Snel's work.
I have some information about this at
http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/explain/optics/discovery.html
An experimental paragraph added. See a short article by Kwan, Dudley and Lantz about this in Physics World in 2003 or 2002. This article says that Thomas Harriot (Hariot may be his preferred spelling) was actually not the first.
Snell may be a solecism, but it's English, and it's the English name of the law, even if not how the man wrote his own name. Given how fluid spelling could be in the 17th century, it could be that Snell spelt his name in several different ways. Can someone check this?