TWEETING THE UNIVERSE: TINY EXPLANATIONS OF VERY BIG IDEAS
Book ID/图书代码： 04560011B46762
English Summary/英文概要： 2. Why is the sky blue?
Since air is patently transparent, this is far from obvious!
Explanation of why sky is blue was found in late 19th century by English physicist Lord Rayleigh (winner of 1904 Nobel Prize for physics). Key fact 1: light is a wave like a ripple spreading on a pond.
This is far from obvious since size of wave (wavelength) too small to see.
Key fact 2: White sunlight, as Newton discovered, is made of all colours of the rainbow, from blue (smallest wavelength) to red (longest).
Key fact 3: Molecules of oxygen/nitrogen in the air just happen to be of a size that deflects (scatters) blue light far more than red.
Consequence: as white sunlight comes down through air, blue light is preferentially removed (scattered). Creates diffuse blue background.
As Sun sets on horizon, it turns red since light must travel through more atmosphere, subtracting 100% of the blue light, leaving only red.
If the particle size in atmosphere changes, so too can sky colour. Sky goes red if there are pollutants or dust from volcanic eruption.
If particle size is just right, you can even get a blue moon. One possible origin of the phrase ‘once in a blue moon’, meaning ‘rarely’.
Sky on Mars can be pink or yellow since colour depends only on size of particles hoisted into the thin atmosphere by dust storms.
High up in Earth’s atmosphere, there are few air molecules to scatter sunlight. The sky, instead of blue, is therefore inky black.
Two master science writers answer 140 of the biggest questions in physics, distilling the essence of each subject into tweets of 140 characters. Marcus Chown and Govert Schilling take us on a unique tour of the universe, covering everything, from the most basic question - Why is the sky dark at night? and Why do stars twinkle? - to the most challenging - What are quasars? and What happened before the big bang? Some of the questions in this brilliantly informative book are as surprising as the answers. Is it possible that all the galaxies we see in our telescopes are nothing but an optical illusion? Could you swim on Saturn’s moon, Titan? Why doesn’t the Moon fall down? (Not a stupid question, it turns out). And would Saturn float in a big enough bath of water?
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 我們就是有辦法用最短的文字讓你瞭解最深奧的天地萬物！ 每次看物理學、天文學等理工科的大篇解釋，你是否有種越看越不明的感覺？。
兩位作者突破巢臼，挑戰使用推特(twitter)上的更新模式，每一則回應(tweet)僅能使用140個字元(約20字)。例如：在太空中時火箭是如何運行？一個牽涉多方的問題，作者僅用300多字就清楚地解釋。書中精選140則問題。透過作者們精簡且易懂的文字，了解生活中關於天地萬物你不可以不知道的事情。(Vincent)
Awards/获奖情况：Rights Sold:
Germany: DTV Verlag
Holland: Fontaine
Turkey: Domingo
About the Author/作者介绍： Marcus Chown is the author of the bestselling Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, The Never Ending Days of Being Dead and The Magic Furnace. He is the cosmology consultant for New Scientist. He also wrote The Solar System, the bestselling app for iPad, which won the Future Book Award 2011, and was number 1 this week in the Japanese iPad paid e-book chart.
Marcus Chown 畢業於倫敦大學物理學系，於加州理工學院取得天文物理學碩士學位。著有多部科普類暢銷作品。現為《新科學人》雜誌，宇宙學顧問。 Govert Schilling has published widely on astronomical topics. Three of his books have been translated into English: The Hunt for Planet X, Evolving Cosmos and Flash!. The International Astronomical Union named Asteroid 10986 Govert after him in recognition of his work on popularizing science.
Govert Schilling知名的科普、天文學作家。至今完成多部天文著作，其中許多作品已被翻譯成英文或德文。如：《你不知道的宇宙大爆炸》（Flash！The Hunt for the Biggest Explosions in the Universe）、《進化中的宇宙》（Evolving Cosmos）和《尋找未知行星》（The Hunt for Planet X）
Format:HARDCOVER
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：
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