Abstract
THE aim of this book is to present the elements of the physics of the atmosphere in a simple manner. It covers rather a wide field, and does not delve very deeply into any portion of the subject. The style is chatty, rather than simple, and gives the impression that the author has made a too strenuous effort to write down to the level of his public. While the author states a number of facts which would be unknown to the general reader, his theory is not always. reliable. For example, he ascribes the “table-cloth” on Table Mountain to the cooling effect upon the air of the low temperature of the mountain top, instead of to adiabatic cooling of the air blown up the slopes of the mountain. It is stated that the earth has grown from a comparatively small cold body by the addition of mass by showers of meteors falling upon it, a theory which is by no means so widely accepted as might be inferred from the author's bold statement of it. On the whole, the book can be recommended to the general reader as an introduction to the physics of atmosphere. The illustrations, mainly of cloud forms, are very well selected.
Why the Weather?
Dr.
Charles Franklin
Brooks
By, with the Collaboration of John Nelson and others. Pp. xvi+310+21 plates. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1924.) n.p.
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01 August 1925
By a most regrettable oversight, the notice of the volume “The Atmosphere and its Story,” by Ernest Frith, and that of “Why the Weather?” by Dr. Charles Franklin Brooks, were transposed. That appearing in NATURE of August 8, p. 204, refers to Dr. Brooks' book, while the notice in the issue of August 15, p. 241, should have appeared under the bibliographic details of Mr. Frith's book.
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Why the Weather? . Nature 116, 241 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116241b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116241b0