Description
Book SynopsisWhy is the sky blue? Parents don't know what to say when their children ask. This illustrated work answers this ancient and surprisingly complex question. It takes the reader on a historical and scientific journey to show the various ways people in different times and places have explained why the sky looks blue.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2010 Louis J. Battan Author's Award, American Meteorological Society Honorable Mention for the 2007 Atmospheric Science Librarians International Choice Award, Historical Category "As Gotz Hoeppe's excellent history of our attempts to explain the blue of the sky shows, from moments of wonder...scientific theories grow...A thorough and detailed history."--P. D. Smith, Times Literary Supplement Praise for the original German edition: "Hoeppe has succeeded in something completely special: the book combines the research of the natural sciences with philosophical and cultural reflections--all elegantly expressed."--Saarlandischer Rundfunk "Delivering far more than the title promises, Hoeppe's book describes an intellectual quest that began with the ancients. He details our growing understanding of the sky's light, and the insights and experiments that brought it about... A well-illustrated, rewarding read."--Jon Richfield, New Scientist "Hoeppe offers accessible insights into a question that extends well beyond the realm of science."--Deutsche-Welle "This book could as easily have been titled 'Is the Sky Blue?' And the answer to that is yes and no... One of the interesting things about Why the Sky is Blue is that as a German, Hoeppe spreads credit for the development of physics farther east than most popular scientific histories in English do. He also presents a number of phenomena that readers can try out in their backyards."--Harry Eagar, Maui News "Sure we all know it's blue, and most of us know why. Or, at least we think we know why. This book shows that our sky comes in as many shades of blue as a painter has in their palette. But each shade has a natural explanation, hence the size and value of this enlightening book. Hoeppe's book works through humanity's understanding of the phenomenon of the blue sky by advancing chronologically...[The] attention to detail, the thoroughness of his review and the vibrant style of writing (even though a translation) make this book worthwhile reading."--Mark Mortimer, Universe Today "This wonderful, discursive book begins with a child's common question and proceeds to provide and interdisciplinary answer with historical perspective and insight...[Hoeppe] enhances the very perception of both the immediate and farthest reaches of the universe."--N. Sadanand, Choice "Why the Sky Is Blue is popular science at its best. In fact, it is considerably more than that: in ten chapters, an epilogue, several appendices, notes, and a bibliography of further reading, the book provides a broad overview since classical antiquity of how scholars have grappled with explanations for the intriguing blue color of the sky above us all. As it turns out, the simple question, why the sky is blue, requires a veritable tour de force through western cultural history and the history of science for a complete and satisfactory answer."--Hans J. Rindisbacher, European Legacy "The subject of this book is interesting enough in its own right, but equally importantly, it is an informative case study of the ways that human thinking has progressed in our attempts to understand the world in which we live."--David Kay, Cosmos Magazine "Why the Sky Is Blue answers an ancient and surprisingly complex question in an entertaining and accessible way."--Lunar & Planetary Information Bulletin "Overall, I found the book to be very well written and translated, well illustrated, and an easy and quite enjoyable read. The author makes use of a number of stories to enhance the subject matter that will make this a very useful textbook for those teaching high school or lower-division undergraduate level courses on the subjects of optics, atmospheric science, and history of science. Noting that there are few books that are currently available on the subject that deal with this historical perspective, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book."--Jeffrey S. Gaffney, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix List of Tables xvii Acknowledgments xix Prologue: Looking at the Sky 1 Chapter 1: Of Philosophers and the Color Blue 9 Chapter 2: A Blue Mixture: Light and Darkness 31 Chapter 3: Aerial Perspective 52 Chapter 4: A Color of the First Order 77 Chapter 5: Basic Phenomenon, or Optical Illusion? 108 Chapter 6: A Polarized Sky 131 Chapter 7: Lord Rayleigh's Scattering 169 Chapter 8: Molecular Reality 203 Chapter 9: Ozone's Blue Hour 235 Chapter 10: The Color of Life 261 Epilogue 289 Appendix A: Determining the Height of the Atmosphere from the Duration of Twilight 291 Appendix B: Blue Eyes as Turbid Media 293 Appendix C: A Simple Derivation of the Inverse Fourth Power Law 295 Appendix D: Atmospheric Extinction and Avogadro's Number 297 Notes 299 Further Reading 311 Index 325
