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Re: Glacier Color



... almost any time you see blue in
the animal world (blue eyes, blue jay's feathers, even a baboon's blue
buttocks) it is due to Rayleigh scattering. [Hecht]

At 14:48 8/30/00 -0700, Leigh pointed out:
... Hecht's statement as reported here is excessive.

It is an injustice to call this phenomenon "Rayleigh scattering" since
it was first demonstrated by John Tyndall. Both Tyndall and Rayleigh
initially thought that the phenomenon was due solely to particles
suspended in the air or gas, and Rayleigh only changed his mind after
Tyndall's death. ....

Leigh

Tyndall's lecturing mode was of the same stellar kind as Faraday's.
His ascension to the Royal Institution was of a similar sort too.
From modest beginnings, it was not the Encyclopaedia Brit. but
rather Carlyle's writings that set him aflame.

His Davy was Bunsen. He shares with Smithson, the distinction of
leaving an income for the furthering of science in America, arising
from his US lecturing tour. (Not sure who now dispenses it....)

Like Leigh, I notice a certain divergence between British and
American sources on the actual effect for which he is remembered -
Tyndall scattering is a large particle effect as described by
McGraw Hill's ES&T, Enc Brit (15th) would call smoke blue a
[small particle] Tyndall effect, as would Oxford Dictionary
of Science (1999)

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net> Altus OK
Eureka!