About this product

Product Information

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 color and polarization 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 polarization 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 colors for paint. He considers what the sky's nighttime 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 color and brightness of the sky touch on secrets of matter and light, the scope of the universe in space and time, the destiny of the earth, and deep human feelings.

Product Identifiers

Publisher
MIT Press Ltd
ISBN-13
9780262662000
eBay Product ID (ePID)
94963874

Product Key Features

Author
Peter Pesic
Publication Name
Sky in a Bottle
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Subject
Geography & Geosciences, Science
Publication Year
2007
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
270 Pages

Dimensions

Item Height
203mm
Item Width
137mm
Item Weight
295g

Additional Product Features

Title_Author
Peter Pesic
Series Title
The MIT Press
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States

Best Selling in Adult Learning & University

Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Adult Learning & University

Time Management by Peter Quarry (Paperback, 1986)
No ratings or reviews yet.
AU $16.99 New
---- Used
Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures by Dixon Dougal (Paperback, 2014)
5.0 out of 5 stars based on 6 product ratings
AU $41.64 New
---- Used
Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices by Deb Dana (Paperback, 2020)
No ratings or reviews yet.
AU $53.39 New
AU $45.00 Used

Save on Adult Learning & University

Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Adult Learning & University

Ford Falcon EF EL / Fairlane NF NL 1994 - 1998 Workshop Manual
AU $49.00
Trending at AU $60.40
Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy: Classic Regional Approach
AU $113.94
Trending at AU $124.20
Michael Price Nick Vandome Windows 11 for Seniors in easy steps (Paperback)
AU $32.73
Trending at AU $36.70
BORN IN 1971?... 1951?BIRTHDAY...Australian Social History....Chrisi, Birthdays
AU $19.00
Trending at AU $22.18
It's Not You: How to Identify and Heal from NARCISSISTIC People by Ramani Durvas
AU $35.00
Trending at AU $37.67
Ethical Practice in Applied Psychology 1st Edition by Christopher Boyle (English
AU $69.19
Trending at AU $72.64

Shop by category

Sky in a Bottle by Peter Pesic (Paperback, 2007)

About this product

Product Information

Product Identifiers

Product Key Features

Dimensions

Additional Product Features

Best Selling in Adult Learning & University

Time Management by Peter Quarry (Paperback, 1986)

Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures by Dixon Dougal (Paperback, 2014)

Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices by Deb Dana (Paperback, 2020)

Save on Adult Learning & University

Ford Falcon EF EL / Fairlane NF NL 1994 - 1998 Workshop Manual

Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy: Classic Regional Approach

Michael Price Nick Vandome Windows 11 for Seniors in easy steps (Paperback)

BORN IN 1971?... 1951?BIRTHDAY...Australian Social History....Chrisi, Birthdays

It's Not You: How to Identify and Heal from NARCISSISTIC People by Ramani Durvas

Ethical Practice in Applied Psychology 1st Edition by Christopher Boyle (English

You may also like

Peter David Fiction Paperback Fiction & Books

Elizabeth Peters Fiction Paperback Fiction & Books

Peter Straub Fiction Paperback Fiction & Books

Peter Lovesey Fiction Paperback Fiction & Books

Peter Robinson Fiction Paperback Fiction & Books

Paperback Calendars (Current)