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Zusatztext "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 Informationen zum Autor Götz Hoeppe is an editor of the popular German science magazine Spektrum der Wissenschaft and a lecturer in social anthropology at Heidelberg University. He is the author of Conversations on the Beach: Fishermen's Knowledge! Metaphor and Environmental Change in South India . Klappentext "This delightful combination of science and history should be required reading for poets! pilots! artists! weather watchers! and anyone who ever marveled at the manifest colors of the sky or wondered why it is only sometimes 'blue.'"--James Rodger Fleming! Colby College "An absorbing study of historical approaches to the everyday fact of the blue sky above us! Gö tz Hoeppe's "Why the Sky is Blue" is full of revelations. The story it tells of the sky's appearance as an issue of speculation and investigation will appeal both to the specialist and the general reader."--Eileen Reeves! author of "Painting the Heavens: Art and Science in the Age of Galileo" Zusammenfassung Why is the sky blue? Parents don't know what to say when their children ask. Why the Sky Is Blue answers this ancient and surprisingly complex question in a more entertaining and accessible way than ever before. Götz Hoeppe 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. The richly illustrated story begins with ancient myths and philosophy and ends with the cutting-edge science of optics, statistical physics, and ozone depletion. Most importantly, it is the story of how scientists discovered that the sky's blue depends on life on Earth and the makeup of our planet's ozone layer. Without microbial life's impact on the composition of the atmosphere, the clear daytime sky would probably lack its distinctive color. And without the ozone, the twilight sky's color would also be very different--not the sapphire tone of l'heure bleue , but rather a yellowish or greenish hue. Why the Sky Is Blue shows that skylight can be viewed from a surprising variety of vantage points. We learn how our physiology and cognitive capacities govern our perception of the sky's color. And we discover why this everyday experience has been such a source of fascination and controversy over the centuries. Delightful and intriguing, Why the Sky Is Blue shows how the attempt to answer this age-old and deceptively simple question only enhances the magic of the blue sky we see above us. ...
