A variety of everyday phenomena are explained in this little book (185 pages). Most of it is optics and thermal physics, like frost and dew on the window, interference colors, mirages, heating and cooling (of LA smog, the greenhouse effect) origin of seasons, ...

Quite complex concepts like optical thickness are illustrated with nice experiments (pouring milk in water) and by foot steps in the snow. Don't be afraid of refractive index gradients or polarization upon reflection, Bohren will explain them marvelously.

I hope more physics textbooks would be like this: this is intriguing science whereas geometrical optics, the school book stuff, is mostly boring. Besides, these experiments and observations can be carried out by anybody with commonly available stuff: you only need a light bulb, a ruler and some volunteers to measure solar irrandiance, with 10-20% accuracy.

This is not a chummy kitchen science experiment book. The science is serious and some principles obtuse. I studied this sort of thing in college and found some of it tough going, though I do think I came away with a lucid understanding for the effort.

The author rambles a bit, mixing exposition and reminisces. This is not a terrible thing, but may not be what you expect. Some of the experiments are elegant and clever, and impressed my 6 year-old considerably. The author's bent is towards optical phenomena, such as why the sky is blue, more than the meteorological, though there's plenty in there.

A fun and interesting book in a conversational and sometimes amusing format. And yes, I finally can explain why the sky is blue.

This book has been invaluable to me in teaching a university class on the Earth's climate. I've been able to pull off some of the clever demonstrations in the classroom. I've never read more understandable descriptions of pressure, "heat", the latent heat of vaporization, and blackbody radiation, including its relationship to the greenhouse effect. The author's dismissive comments towards global warming as just the current fad of 1982 have not stood the test of time. His book, however, will help educators explain to the public our dire circumstances so that something might be done about it.

This is a very well written, creative and informative work. It's a league well above the cliche "amazing science experiments" books and offers detailed insight into atmospheric phenomena. The style is prose, not the boring step by step method that turns off many readers. You can use it to perform experiments, but it's a good readin itself. I highly recommend it to teachers - you'll learn some interesting stuff while getting your demo ideas.

I teach atmospheric science to undergraduate students at a major university. Teaching atmospheric thermodynamics has always been a challenge because of the lack of a suitable text book. I had high hopes for this book when it first came out. However, it turned out that I could use almost nothing in this book. The treatment is non-standard and in many instances incorrect. Because of the authors' disdain for differentials, derivations are cumbersome and not always correct; certain topics such as Maxwell's relations cannot be treated without differentials (perhaps this is why this topic was omitted from the book). The selection of material is not very useful for an atmospheric scientist, other than the fact that it focuses mainly on gases. Apart from the selection and treatment of the material, the aspect of the book that I dislike the most is the condescending manner that the author treats other people in the profession and also the students. The author dislikes many things, and everybody else working in this field is apparently an idiot. Most of the so-called misconceptions held by others that are pointed out in this text do not exist in fact, and the authors are merely playing linguistic games. Some of the other reviewers apparently find this amusing; I do not. The author apparently attempts a feynman-esque style in his writing; in my opinion it fails miserably. I have found the text by Curry and Webster on "Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans" to be far more useful, although it is somewhat advanced for undergraduates.

When I bought this book in 1998, I did so with great expectations: at long last an overdue text in atmospheric thermodynamics! And from Oxford University Press at that! I read it and was rather annoyed at the arrogant style of those two authors, one of whom has written an admired textbook on scattering. I found very disturbing such phrases as the one I am paraphrasing as the title of this review, as well as others like "the rubbish that continues to be propagated in textbooks is inexcusable". Either they don't have read enough textbooks or they are redefining the word rubbish. There are many imprecise statements and also straight errors. They do no better than their predecessors, although that is exactly what they set out to do (Preface, p. ix). They abhor differentials, citing some great figures like Truesdell, who "dips his pen in the most corrosive acid when writing about differentials in thermodynamics", misunderstanding him and ignoring what he wrote about differentials in the second edition of "Rational Thermodynamics". I agree, however, with the authors in that there is much room for improvement in the usual presentation of atmospheric thermodynamics, and I think they succeed in many respects. But in a major point they fail outrightly: I find it "inexcusable" that, by the end of the 20th century, the authors of a new textbook on atmospheric thermodynamics seem uninformed as to the important developments in irreversible atmospheric processes that took place in the last 50 years or so. No mention of entropy production, for instance, nowhere is "affinity" defined, although it plays an important part in reaching equilibrium, an aspect of real processes to which they devote a chapter, but without bringing the reader nearer to modern developments.
Altogether a failed attempt at filling out a gaping gap existing in this branch of meteorology.

This is a very unusual book on thermodynamics. It is very good reading and can be usefull if you know thermodynamics. Otherwise it is dangerous.The authors hate a lot of things. Among then differentials , which they claim"are a swindle".The authors probably are not aware of Abrahan Robinson work on Non Standard Analysis.However to divide every differential by dt and claim that with this time enters in thermodynamics is wrong in my opinion. Thermodynamics considers reversible transformations which of course can only be approximated , usually (but not allways)by very slow transformations. There are other erors in the book , which however can be VERY usefull if you already know thermodynamics. Please be carefull