From Gods to Gigabytes – A Brief History of Weather Forecasting
$52.00
The book traces the history of humanity’s attempts to predict the weather, from the placating of sky gods, indigenous weather forecasting, the beliefs of farmers and sailors in mediaeval times through to the dawn of science following the Renaissance.
Technology gave the whole process a massive boost, with the invention of the telegraph and electronic computers enabling forecasters to process information faster than the weather itself could move. Scientific weather forecasting had arrived.
Modern weather prediction is one of the more recent scientific endeavours. Mathematics, physics and chemistry can be traced back for centuries but mathematical weather forecasting is barely 100 years old and has made astonishing progress in such a short time. It is one of the great philosophical and practical triumphs of human achievement.
Inspiration, communication and calculation had achieved many of the goals that had previously been thought impossible.
The book ends with a look at the future of weather prediction – where do we go from here? The difference between skill and accuracy has relevance across a variety of human endeavours, as does the onset of chaos in all manner of predictive processes.
Description
The book traces the history of humanity’s attempts to predict the weather, from the placating of sky gods, indigenous weather forecasting, the beliefs of farmers and sailors in mediaeval times through to the dawn of science following the Renaissance.
Technology gave the whole process a massive boost, with the invention of the telegraph and electronic computers enabling forecasters to process information faster than the weather itself could move. Scientific weather forecasting had arrived.
Modern weather prediction is one of the more recent scientific endeavours. Mathematics, physics and chemistry can be traced back for centuries but mathematical weather forecasting is barely 100 years old and has made astonishing progress in such a short time. It is one of the great philosophical and practical triumphs of human achievement.
Inspiration, communication and calculation had achieved many of the goals that had previously been thought impossible.
The book ends with a look at the future of weather prediction – where do we go from here? The difference between skill and accuracy has relevance across a variety of human endeavours, as does the onset of chaos in all manner of predictive processes.
