What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks? More Experiments in Atmospheric Physics

by Bohren, Craig F.

• ISBN13: 9780486453361
• ISBN10: 0486453367
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-17
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

This sequel toClouds in a Glass of Beermakes the world of atmospheric physics even more accessible to readers without a scientific background. Abounding in lively writing and fun-filled, easy-to-perform experiments, it offers memorable ways to learn about an intriguing branch of science. 1991 edition.

Table of Contents

Window Watching	1	(12)
More Is Not Always the Answer	1	(1)
Why Does Dew Form on the Insides of Windows?	2	(2)
Dew Patterns on Windows	4	(4)
Frozen Dew and Frost	8	(5)
Interference Patterns on Garage Door Windows	13	(12)
A Winter Night's Experiment	14	(1)
Interference Fringes in Thin Films	14	(4)
Why Must Films Be Thin to Give Colors?	18	(1)
Why a Series of Regularly Spaced Fringes?	19	(2)
Resolution of One Puzzle	21	(1)
Resolution of a Mystery	22	(3)
Window Watching and Polarized Light	25	(12)
Elliptically Polarized Light	26	(1)
Fresnel-Arago Laws	27	(1)
Transformations of Polarized Light	28	(5)
Back to Airplane Windows	33	(4)
Fame from Window Watching: Malus and Polarized Light	37	(12)
Polarization upon Reflection	37	(3)
The Scattering Interpretation of Polarization upon Reflection	40	(2)
Why Brewster Angle, Not Malus Angle?	42	(1)
A Few Misconceptions Dispelled	43	(4)
Back to the Airplane Window	47	(2)
Light Bulb Climatology	49	(12)
Thermal Inertia Is Not a Bad Word	49	(3)
Temperature and Luminance Variation	52	(2)
Observations of Luminance Variations of Lamps	54	(3)
Light Bulb Climatology	57	(2)
Caveats and Conclusions	59	(2)
Highway Mirages	61	(10)
A Mirage Is Not an Illusion	61	(1)
Refractive Index Gradients	62	(2)
Ray Tracing in a Nonuniform Atmosphere	64	(2)
Multiple Images	66	(5)
The Greenhouse Effect Revisited	71	(12)
Cooling Curves	72	(1)
Emissivity	73	(4)
Do Good Absorbers Go to Heaven?	77	(2)
Emissivity and Climate Change	79	(4)
Boil and Bubble, Toil and Trouble	83	(14)
The Ideal and the Real	84	(1)
Boiling Means Bubbles	85	(1)
Bubble Growth in Water	86	(2)
Can Boiling Water Rise above Its Boiling Point?	88	(2)
Why Add Salt to Your Spaghetti Water?	90	(1)
Ebullition Altimetry	91	(6)
An Essay on Dew	97	(16)
A Controlled Experiment Is Preferable to a Shouting Match	97	(2)
Dew Formation	99	(1)
Nocturnal Radiational Cooling	100	(2)
Nocturnal Cooling of Metals	102	(4)
In the Calm of the Night	106	(1)
The Fruits of Teaching	107	(2)
Frost at Edges	109	(4)
Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go Out in the Midday Sun	113	(8)
The Solar Irradiance	113	(1)
Pincushion Analogy	114	(1)
Estimating the Solar Irradiance	115	(1)
Season to Taste	116	(5)
Temperature Inversions Have Cold Bottoms	121	(10)
Demonstrating Atmospheric Stability	121	(4)
Temperature Differences	125	(2)
Los Angeles Smog	127	(1)
Excuse My Dust	128	(3)
Water Vapor Mysticism	131	(10)
Common Sense and Cooling Curves	132	(1)
Evaporative Cooling	133	(3)
Molecular Interpretation of Gas Conductivity	136	(2)
Origins of a Fallacy	138	(1)
Water Vapor Mysticism	139	(2)
Strange Footprints in Snow	141	(14)
The Invariance of Optical Thickness	141	(4)
A Mystery Solved	145	(1)
A Few Experiments and Another Mystery	145	(3)
The Nude-in-the-Shower Phenomenon	148	(7)
The Doppler Effect	155	(10)
A Train of Thought	155	(3)
A Smattering of History	158	(1)
A Doppler Effect Demonstration	159	(2)
A Misconception Dispelled	161	(2)
Doppler Radar	163	(2)
All That's Best of Dark and Bright	165	(14)
Objects Near and Far	165	(2)
The Measure of Directions in the Plane and in Space	167	(1)
Irradiance, Radiance, Luminance, and Brightness	168	(4)
The Subjectivity of Brightness	172	(7)
Selected Bibliography and Suggestions for Further Reading	179	(8)
Index	187