July 13, 1998 transcript #: 242-1
Subject(s): Aristotle, meteorology, hydrometers
Title: METEOROLOGICAWhen you hear the word meteorology, you usually think of weather, the sky, the atmosphere. But do you know where the term meteorology came from? Hi, I’m Dave Thurlow and this is The Weather Notebook.
Well, in order to find out the origins of the term meteorology, I thought we’d test the knowledge of our studio audience. OK, so the question is -- who coined the term meteorology? Was it Gabriel Fahrenheit, Aristotle, Ben Franklin or Marcel Marceau? And the answer is…ARISTOTLE. Bingo! The term "meteorology" has been around for a pretty long time, since 340 B.C. That’s when Aristotle wrote a book called "Meteorologica." It was in this book that Aristotle presented the philosophical knowledge of the atmosphere at the time and included such topics as clouds, wind, lightning, snow and climate change.
The book was called "Meteorologica" because, it dealt with anything that fell from, or suspended in, the sky. Today, we call those big rocks that fall from space meteors but technically clouds and rain and snow are also meteors -- hydrometeors. So many of Aristotle’s explanations of the natural world, such as everything is made up of earth, air, fire, and water, were reasonable guesses at the time, they later were disproved. But he did give us the term weather fans hold dear to their hearts…METEOROLOGY!
For more information on Aristotle’s "Meteorologica", visit our website at mountwashington.org/notebook. And if you have any weather questions, leave a message on our machine at 1-888-RAIN-001. The Weather Notebook is underwritten by Subaru, the beauty of all-wheel drive with major funding provided by the National Science Foundation.
Here are two sources of information on Aristotle and Meteorology from university student web sites:
Rochester Institute of Technology
These books are available from Amazon.com. Purchase them through our website and help support the Mount Washington Observatory:
Meteorologica : Aristotle VII (Loeb Classical Library :No. 397) by Aristotle, H. D. P. Lee
On Aristotle's Meteorology 4 (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle) by Alexander, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Eric Lewis (Translator).