Experimenting on a Small Planet : A History of Scientific Discoveries, a Future of Climate Change and Global Warming.
Material type:
- text
- computer
- online resource
- 9783319274041
- 551.6
- GE1-350
Intro -- Foreword -- Prologue -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- About the Cover -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1Leningrad-1982 -- 1.2'Global Warming' or 'Global Weirding' -- 1.3My Background -- 1.4What Is Science? -- 1.5The Observational Sciences -- 1.6The Complexity of Nature -- 1.7Summary -- 2 The Language of Science -- 2.1Numbers and Symbols -- 2.2Arithmetic, Algebra, and Calculus -- 2.3Orders of Magnitude and Exponents -- 2.4Logarithms -- 2.5Logarithms and Scales with Bases Other than 10 -- 2.6Earthquake Scales -- 2.7The Beaufort Wind Force Scale -- 2.8Extending the Beaufort Scale to Cyclonic Storms -- 2.9Calendars and Time -- 2.10Summary -- 3 Applying Mathematics to Problems -- 3.1Measures and Weights -- 3.2The Nautical Mile -- 3.3The Metric System -- 3.4Temperature -- 3.5Precisely Defining Some Words You Already Know -- 3.6Locating Things -- 3.7Latitude and Longitude -- 3.8Map Projections -- 3.9Trigonometry -- 3.10Circles and Angular Velocity -- 3.11Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces -- 3.12Exponential Growth and Decay -- 3.13The Logistic Equation -- 3.14Graphs -- 3.15Statistics -- 3.16Summary -- 4 Geologic Time -- 4.1Age of the Earth-4004 BCE, or Older? -- 4.2The Discovery of the Depths of Time-Eternity -- 4.3Geologic Time Punctuated by Revolutions -- 4.4Catastrophism Replaced by Imperceptibly Slow Gradual Change -- 4.5The Development of the Geological Time Scale -- 4.6The Discovery of the Ice Age -- 4.7The Discovery of Past Warm Polar Regions -- 4.8Throwing a Monkey Wrench into Explaining Climate Change -- 4.9'Crustal Mobility' to the Rescue -- 4.10The Return of Catastrophism and the Idea of Rapid Change -- 4.11The Nature of the Geologic Record -- 4.12The Great Extinctions and Their Causes -- 4.13Summary -- 5 Putting Numbers on Geologic Ages -- 5.11788-An Abyss of Time of Unknown Dimensions.
5.21863-Physics Comes to the Rescue-Earth Is not More Than 100 Million Years Old -- 5.3What We Now Know About Heat from Earth's Interior -- 5.4Some Helpful Background In Understanding 19th Century Chemistry -- 5.5Atomic Weight, Atomic Mass, Isotopes, Relative Atomic Mass, Standard Atomic Weight-A Confusing Plethora of Terms -- 5.61895-1913-The Worlds of Physics and Chemistry Turned Upside Down -- 5.7Henri Becquerel and the Curies -- 5.8Nonconformists and the British Universities Open to All -- 5.9The Discovery of Electrons, Alpha-Rays, and Beta-Rays -- 5.10The Discovery of Radioactive Decay Series, Exponential Decay Rates, and Secular Equilibrium -- 5.11The Mystery of the Decay Series Explained by Isotopes -- 5.12The Discovery that Radioactive Decay Series Might Be Used to Determine the Age of Rocks -- 5.13The Discovery of Stable Isotopes -- 5.14Rethinking the Structure of the Atom -- 5.15From Science to Science Fiction -- 5.16The Discovery of Protons and Neutrons -- 5.17Arthur Holmes and the Age of the Earth -- 5.18The Development of a Numerical Geological Timescale -- 5.19Summary -- 6 Documenting Past Climate Change -- 6.1What Is 'Climate'? -- 6.2A Brief Overview of Earth's Climate History -- 6.3The Cenozoic Climate 'Deterioration' -- 6.4From Ages to Process Rates -- 6.5Radiometric Age Dating in the Mid-20th Century -- 6.6Potassium-Argon Dating -- 6.7Reversals of Earth's Magnetic Field -- 6.8Fission Track Dating -- 6.9Astronomical Dating -- 6.10Tritium, Carbon-14 and Beryllium-10 -- 6.11The Human Acceleration of Natural Process Rates -- 6.12The Present Climate in Its Geologic Context -- 6.13Steady State Versus Non-steady State -- 6.14Feedbacks -- 6.15Summary -- 7 The Nature of Energy Received from the Sun-The Analogies with Water Waves and Sound -- 7.1Water Waves -- 7.2Special Water Waves-Tides and Tsunamis.
7.3Wave Energy, Refraction and Reflection -- 7.4Sound Waves -- 7.5Sound Waves and Music -- 7.6Measuring the Speed of Sound in Air -- 7.7Measuring the Speed of Sound in Water -- 7.8The Practical Use of Sound in Water -- 7.9Summary -- 8 The Nature of Energy Received from the Sun-Figuring Out What Light Really Is -- 8.1Early Ideas About Light -- 8.2Refraction of Light -- 8.3Measuring the Speed of Light -- 8.4The Discovery of Double Refraction or 'Birefringence' -- 8.5Investigating the Dispersion of Light -- 8.6Figuring Out the Wavelengths of Different Colors of Light -- 8.7Diffraction -- 8.8Polarization of Light -- 8.9Eureka!-Light Is Electromagnetic Waves -- 8.10A Review of the Discovery of the Invisible Parts of the Electromagnetic Spectrum -- 8.11The Demise of the 'Luminiferous æther' -- 8.12Summary -- 9 Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum -- 9.1Spectra and Spectral Lines -- 9.2The Discovery of Helium-First in the Sun, then on Earth -- 9.3The Discovery That Spectral Lines Are Mathematically Related -- 9.4Heinrich Hertz's Confirmation of Maxwell's Ideas -- 9.5Marconi Makes the Electromagnetic Spectrum a Tool for Civilization -- 9.6Human Use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum for Communication, Locating Objects, and Cooking -- 9.7Summary -- 10 The Origins of Climate Science-The Idea of Energy Balance -- 10.1What Is Heat? -- 10.2Thermodynamics -- 10.3The Laws of Thermodynamics -- 10.4The Discovery of Greenhouse Gases -- 10.5Kirchhoff's 'Black Body' -- 10.6Stefan's Fourth Power Law -- 10.7Black Body Radiation -- 10.8Summary -- 11 The Climate System -- 11.1An Introduction to the Climate System -- 11.2Insolation-The Incoming Energy from the Sun -- 11.3Albedo-The Reflection of Incoming Energy Back into Space -- 11.4Reradiation-How the Earth Radiates Energy Back into Space -- 11.5The Chaotic Nature of the Weather.
11.6The Earthly Components of the Climate System: Air, Earth, Ice, and Water -- 11.7The Atmosphere -- 11.8The Hydrosphere -- 11.9The Cryosphere -- 11.10The Land -- 11.11Classifying Climatic Regions -- 11.12Uncertainties in the Climate Scheme -- 11.13Summary -- 12 What's at the Bottom of Alice's Rabbit Hole -- 12.1Max Planck and the Solution to the Black Body Problem -- 12.2The Photoelectric Effect -- 12.3The Bohr Atom -- 12.4Implications of the Bohr Model for the Periodic Table of the Elements -- 12.5The Zeeman Effect -- 12.6Trying to Make Sense of the Periodic Table -- 12.7The Second Quantum Revolution -- 12.8The Discovery of Nuclear Fission -- 12.9Molecular Motions -- 12.10Summary -- 13 Energy From the Sun-Long-term Variations -- 13.1The Faint Young Sun Paradox -- 13.2The Energy Flux from the Sun -- 13.3The Orbital Cycles -- 13.4The Rise and Fall of the Orbital Theory of Climate Change -- 13.5The Resurrection of the Orbital Theory -- 13.6Correcting the Age Scale -- Filling in the Details to Prove the Theory -- 13.7The Discovery that Milankovitch Orbital Cycles Have Affected Much of Earth History -- 13.8Summary -- 14 Solar Variability and Cosmic Rays -- 14.1Solar Variability -- 14.2The Solar Wind -- 14.3Solar Storms and Space Weather -- 14.4The Solar Neutrino Problem -- 14.5The Ultraviolet Radiation -- 14.6Cosmic Rays -- 14.7A Digression into the World of Particle Physics -- 14.8How Cosmic Rays Interact with Earth's Atmosphere -- 14.9Carbon-14 -- 14.10Beryllium-10 -- 14.11Cosmic Rays and Climate -- 14.12Summary -- 15 Albedo -- 15.1Albedo of Planet Earth -- 15.2Clouds -- 15.3Could Cloudiness Be a Global Thermostat? -- 15.4Volcanic Ash and Climate Change -- 15.5Aerosols -- 15.6Albedo During the Last Glacial Maximum -- 15.7Changing the Planetary Albedo to Counteract Greenhouse Warming -- 15.8Summary.
16 Air -- 16.1The Nature of Air -- 16.2The Velocity of Air Molecules -- 16.3Other Molecular Motions -- 16.4The Other Major Component of Air-Photons -- 16.5Ionization -- 16.6The Scattering of Light -- 16.7Absorption of the Infrared Wavelengths -- 16.8Other Components of Air: Subatomic Particles -- 16.9Summary -- 17 HOH-The Keystone of Earth's Climate -- 17.1Some History -- 17.2Why Is HOH so Strange? -- 17.3The Hydrologic Cycle -- 17.4Vapor -- 17.5Pure Water -- 17.6Natural Water -- 17.7Water-Density and Specific Volume -- 17.8Water-Surface Tension -- 17.9Ice -- 17.10Earth's Ice -- 17.11How Ice Forms from Fresh Water and from Seawater -- 17.12Snow and Ice on Land -- 17.13Ice Cores -- 17.14Ice as Earth's Climate Stabilizer -- 17.15Summary -- 18 The Atmosphere -- 18.1Atmospheric Pressure -- 18.2The Structure of the Atmosphere -- 18.3The Troposphere -- 18.4The Stratosphere -- 18.5The Mesosphere -- 18.6The Thermosphere -- 18.7The Exosphere -- 18.8The Magnetosphere -- 18.9The Ionosphere -- 18.10The Atmospheric Greenhouse Effect -- 18.11The Distribution of Gases in the Atmosphere -- 18.12The Overall Effect of the Atmosphere on Solar Irradiance -- 18.13The Effects of Anthropogenic Atmospheric Pollution -- 18.14Summary -- 19 Oxygen and Ozone-Products and Protectors of Life -- 19.1Diatomic Oxygen-O2-'Oxygen' -- 19.2Triatomic Oxygen-O3-Ozone -- 19.3The Oxygen-Ozone-Ultraviolet Connection -- 19.4The Oxygen-Ozone-Ultraviolet Conundrum -- 19.5The Human Interference with Ozone -- 19.6Ozone-The Greenhouse Gas -- 19.7Summary -- 20 Water Vapor-The Major Greenhouse Gas -- 20.1The Behavior of Dry Air -- 20.2The Behavior of Wet Air -- 20.3What Controls Atmospheric Water Vapor? -- 20.4Anthropogenic Effects -- 20.5The Changing Area of Exposed Water Surface -- 20.6Summary -- 21 Carbon Dioxide.
21.1Carbon Dioxide as a Greenhouse Gas.
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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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