- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: MIT Press (29 Nov 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0262162342
- ISBN-13: 978-0262162340
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,567,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Sky in a Bottle
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Product Description
Review
"Blue is a theme throughout the book-and not just sky blue. Each of the ten chapters has blue in its title, from the opening "Out of the Blue" to the concluding "The Perfect Blue." Pesic not only traces the scientific legacy of concepts and discoveries that have led to our current understanding of the sky's usual color, he also weaves into his tale cultural uses of the color blue... A delightful and informative read." Science "If only Tyndall could have put his hands on an advance copy of science historian Peter Pesic's luminous new book, Sky in a Bottle. In 10 cleanly written, well-paced chapters, Pesic traces the progression of our understanding of atmospheric hue through dozens of scientists, philosophers, and artists. His smartest move was to structure Sky in a Bottle like a mystery story, coaxing us puzzle by puzzle through the (very) uneven advances of knowledge over the centuries." The Boston Sunday Globe "Pesic provides an elegant synopsis of the scientific investigation into the sky's color as well as an appendix of experiments for readers seeking to explain some of the sky's mystery for themselves." Science News "Pesic, a musician who holds a doctorate in physics, sets out on an enthralling and entertainingjourney... I commend this book to those who want to read about truly significant discoverieslinked together through the need to answer what seems to be a simple question. Unlike many other attempts to popularize science, this book has managed not to garble the facts or sensationalize them. It is well worth reading." Nature
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
The age-old question "Why is the sky blue?" begins a quest through science, history, and art, from Aristotle and Newton through Goethe and Einstein. Children ask, "Why is the sky blue?" but the question also puzzled Plato, Leonardo, and even Newton, who unlocked so many other secrets. The search for an answer continued for centuries; in 1862 Sir John Herschel listed the colour and polarisation of sky light as "the two great standing enigmas of meteorology." In Sky in a Bottle, Peter Pesic takes us on a quest to the heart of this mystery, tracing the various attempts of science, history, and art to solve it. He begins with the scholars of the ancient world and continues through the natural philosophers of the Enlightenment, the empiricists of the Scientific Revolution, and beyond. The cast of characters includes Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Kepler, Descartes, Euler, Saussure, Goethe, Rayleigh, and Einstein; but the protagonist is the question itself, and the story tells how we have tried to answer it. Pesic's odyssey introduces us to central ideas of chemistry, optics, and atomic physics. He describes the polarisation of light, Rayleigh scattering, and connections between the appearance of the sky and Avogadro's number. He discusses changing representations of the sky in art, from new styles of painting to new pigments that created new colours for paint. He considers what the sky's night-time brightness might tell us about the size and density of the universe. And Pesic asks another, daring, question: Can we put the sky in a bottle? Can we recreate and understand its blueness here on earth? This puzzle, he says, opens larger perspectives; questions of the colour and brightness of the sky touch the secrets of matter and light, the scope of the universe in space and time, the destiny of the earth, and deep human feelings.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Imagine a summer afternoon with a serene sky. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Imagine a summer afternoon with a serene sky. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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6 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
An excellent description of how science happens
6 Mar 2006
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
One could almost use this book for the central organization of history of science course, and I think the students would understand the true nature of science better than in other presentations. (The book even includes some experiments.) It shows science in the making, from the earliest philosophers to experimentalists and theoreticians, emphasizing the somewhat rocky and cicuitous road to "truth". Clearly, the obvious is not always so, even to the best of minds. Anyway, to understand the color of the sky requires a lot of physical and chemical knowledge that the author slowly develops in a non-mathematical way. He also becomes a Renaissance man, talking about more than just the science involved.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Blue skies, nothing but blue skies
26 April 2006
Format:Hardcover
This isn't exactly light reading, but it is very readable. Peter Pesic demonstrates an artful ability to describe the history or scientific thought by focusing on one particular issue. In so doing, he educates the reader on how some very great writers, philosophers and early scientists approached the world. Never pedantic, Pesic displays an amazingly wide source of knowledge cutting across many fields. I am enjoying it thus far.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A Very Intriguing Story
30 Jun 2006
Format:Hardcover
Simply put, this book is about human efforts in trying to understand why the daytime clear sky is blue. In the earliest parts of the book, ancient thought on this issue is discussed; hence, the arguments are more philosophical in nature, as one would expect. As the book progresses, more and more recent, and hence more technical, arguments are presented. Finally, the latter part of the main text involves the latest, fairly detailed scientific explanations for the blueness of the sky. The prose is kept simple and technical arguments are very clearly explained. Over 40 pages of notes are included at the end of the book where the reader can find references and more detailed explanations for the some of the material given in the main text. Finally, the book contains descriptions of simple experiments that one can try at home - experiments that are meant to illustrate some of phenomena described in the book. Adequately illustrated with useful diagrams, this book would be of interest mainly, I believe, to science buffs.
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