Essays on the use and limit of the imagination in scienceTyndall, John
Science
Essays on the use and limit of the imagination in science
Tyndall, John
Science
We have here presented a case to the imagination, and, assuming the
undulatory theory to be a reality, we have, I think, fairly reasoned
our way to the conclusion, that were particles, small in comparison
to the size of the ether waves, sown in our atmosphere, the light
scattered by those particles would be exactly such as we observe in
our azure skies. When this light is analysed, all the colours of the
spectrum are found; but they are found in the proportions indicated by
our conclusion.
Let us now turn our attention to the light which passes unscattered
among the particles. How must it be finally affected? By its successive
collisions with the particles the white light is more and more robbed
of its shorter waves; it therefore loses more and more of its due
proportion of blue. The result may be anticipated. The transmitted
light, where short distances are involved, will appear yellowish.
But as the sun sinks towards the horizon the atmospheric distances
increase, and consequently the number of the scattering particles.
They abstract in succession the violet, the indigo, the blue, and even
disturb the proportions of green. The transmitted light under such
circumstances must pass from yellow through orange to red. This also is
exactly what we find in nature. Thus, while the reflected light gives
us at noon the deep azure of the Alpine skies, the transmitted light
gives us at sunset the warm crimson of the Alpine snows. The phenomena
certainly occur _as if_ our atmosphere were a medium rendered
slightly turbid by the mechanical suspension of exceedingly small
foreign particles.
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