Exploring the Eath and the Cosmos

FROM THE JACKET FLAP: Throughout history there has been no greater adventure than that represented by man's quest for knowledge of his world. Now in one wide-ranging volume, Isaac Asimov tells the exciting stoy of how people have learned and continue to learn about their world--from the great migrations of prehistory to the space probes of today to the barely dreamed-of journeys of tomorrow. Asimov ranges across the entire panorama of science, covering in twenty-three mind-expanding chapters discoveries in astronomy, biology, geography, mathematics, geology, and physics. He tells us about the explorations, discoveries, and inventions that have transformed our view of the world and the scientific theory and scientific speculation that have expanded our vision yet further. Within the four spheres of the physical universe--the horizons of space, time, matter, and energy--Asimov reveals how man's urge to expand the limits of knowledge has led him to leave the perimeters of the known world, to develop theories and devices that would allow him to plumb the secrets of the earth and the universe. 'Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos' tells hundreds of fascinating stories: -how ten fingers and twelve number names evolved into today's varied, intricate, and often complicated number systems -how smoke from a house fire inspired the first hot-air balloon and man's early journeys above the earth -the growth of man's concept of time and the methods he devised to measure it -the discovery of the strange, eventful world inside the atom -the emergence of speculations about time travel Here for the first time in one breathtaking, sweeping history are the facts, dates, names, and figures that are the story of man's movement out into the world and the universe beyond. FROM THE TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: THE HORIZONS OF SPACE 03 . . . The Eastern Hemisphere 18 . . . The World as a Whole 32 . . . The Interiors and the Poles 51 . . . Surface Ups and Downs 61 . . . The Ocean 77 . . . Interlude: The Horizon of Numbers 85 . . . Below Earth's Surface 91 . . . Earth's Atmosphere 104 . . . Beyond the Balloon 118 . . . Out Into Space 135 . . . The Inner Solar System 150 . . . Mars and Beyond 164 . . . The Stars PART II: THE HORIZONS OF TIME 183 . . . The Age of History 196 . . . The Age of the Earth 210 . . . All of Time 227 . . . Instants of Time 235 . . . Speed PART III: THE HORIZONS OF MATTER 247 . . . Mass, Large and Small 265 . . . Atoms and Beyond 278 . . . Density and Pressure PART IV: THE HORIZONS OF ENERGY 297 . . . High Temperatures 309 . . . Low Temperatures 321 . . . Luminosity 331 . . . Index