The Hygrometer and Other Meteorological Instruments

  • H. Howard Frisinger
Chapter
Part of the Meteorological Monographs book series (METEOR)

Abstract

As was noted in Chapter I, the ancient Greeks had a fairly accurate grasp of the hydrological cycle—the ascent of water from the lakes, rivers, and oceans into the atmosphere, and its return again to the earth as precipitation. One problem with this cyclic concept was that at some stage in the process the water became invisible. To resolve this difficulty, Aristotle and other Greek natural philosophers assumed that some, but not all, of the ascending water turned into air.1 The reason for the “hedge” on not having all of the rising water turning into air was that Aristotle realized that clouds consisted of drops of water.2

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References

  1. 1.
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Copyright information

© American Meteorological Society 1983

Authors and Affiliations

  • H. Howard Frisinger
    • 1
  1. 1.Colorado State UniversityUSA

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