Already a bestseller in Germany, this book examines the enigma of the blue sky, a phenomenon pursued from Aristotle to medieval Arab philosophers to Renaissance thinkers and present-day planetologists. Hoeppe's range is encyclopedic, covering Greek cosmology, Da Vinci's groundbreaking exploration of color, Newton's discovery of the visible light spectrum and the consequent optics revolution, Huygens subsequent suggestion that light is transmitted as waves, and even poet Goethe's experimental attempts to explain the nature of the color blue. The history that Hoeppe recounts is so rich in ideas and personalities (such as the mountaineering scientist, Tyndall, who discovered the greenhouse effect, and the future Lord Rayleigh, who courted his would-be wife with a book on the physics of sound) that it's easy to become almost as engrossed as the passionate subjects themselves. Hoeppe puts life back into great scientists-all too often reduced, in present usage, to mere adjectives (Brownian motion, Maxwell's laws, etc.)-explaining clearly how their discoveries hang together, how their personal lives and social situations influenced their science, and how the simplest question-why is the sky blue?-has stimulated more than 2,000 years of human exploration.
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As Götz Hoeppe's excellent history of our attempts to explain the blue of the sky shows, from moments of wonder...scientific theories grow...A thorough and detailed history. -- P. D. Smith, Times Literary Supplement
Praise for the original German edition: "In this richly illustrated volume, the author describes and explains the color and appearance of the firmament, from earlier times to the current day. It is an exciting excursion from mythology, art, and philosophy up through modern science. -- Die Welt
Praise for the original German edition: "This is a multilayered book that makes a seemingly commonplace observation the starting point of an exciting journey of discovery . . . The color of the sky proves to be the key to understanding many of our cultural achievements in science, art and everyday life. -- 1's "Bücherwelt
Praise for the original German edition: "Hoeppe has succeeded in something completely special: the book combines the research of the natural sciences with philosophical and cultural reflections--all elegantly expressed. -- Saarländischer Rundfunk
Delivering far more than the title promises, Hoeppe's book describes an intellectual quest that began with the ancients. He details our growing understanding of the sky's light, and the insights and experiments that brought it about. . . . A well-illustrated, rewarding read. -- Jon Richfield, New Scientist
Hoeppe offers accessible insights into a question that extends well beyond the realm of science. -- Deutsche-Welle
This book could as easily have been titled 'Is the Sky Blue?' And the answer to that is yes and no.... One of the interesting things about
Why the Sky is Blue is that as a German, Hoeppe spreads credit for the development of physics farther east than most popular scientific histories in English do. He also presents a number of phenomena that readers can try out in their backyards. -- Harry Eagar, Maui News
Sure we all know it's blue, and most of us know why. Or, at least we think we know why. This book shows that our sky comes in as many shades of blue as a painter has in their palette. But each shade has a natural explanation, hence the size and value of this enlightening book. Hoeppe's book works through humanity's understanding of the phenomenon of the blue sky by advancing chronologically....[The] attention to detail, the thoroughness of his review and the vibrant style of writing (even though a translation) make this book worthwhile reading. -- Mark Mortimer, Universe Today
This wonderful, discursive book begins with a child's common question and proceeds to provide and interdisciplinary answer with historical perspective and insight...[Hoeppe] enhances the very perception of both the immediate and farthest reaches of the universe. -- N. Sadanand, Choice
Why the Sky Is Blue is popular science at its best. In fact, it is considerably more than that: in ten chapters, an epilogue, several appendices, notes, and a bibliography of further reading, the book provides a broad overview since classical antiquity of how scholars have grappled with explanations for the intriguing blue color of the sky above us all. As it turns out, the simple question, why the sky is blue, requires a veritable tour de force through western cultural history and the history of science for a complete and satisfactory answer. -- Hans J. Rindisbacher, European Legacy
The subject of this book is interesting enough in its own right, but equally importantly, it is an informative case study of the ways that human thinking has progressed in our attempts to understand the world in which we live. -- David Kay, Cosmos Magazine
Why the Sky Is Blue answers an ancient and surprisingly complex question in an entertaining and accessible way. -- Lunar & Planetary Information Bulletin
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
