Olbers' Paradox (Harrison, pp. 271-272) WITH Relationship of palaeomagnetic reversals and micropalaeontology in two late Cenozoic cores from the Pacific Ocean (Harrison & Funnell, pp. 566) in Nature 204, 1964

London: Macmillan and Co, 1964. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF TED HARRISON'S SOLUTION TO A CLASSICAL PROBLEM IN ASTRONOMY KNOW AS OLBERS' PARADOX. ALSO INCLUDED, CHRISTOPHER HARRISON & BRIAN FUNNELL'S "DISCOVERY THAT DEEP-SEA SEDIMENTS RECORD REVERSALS OF THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD" (Gornitz, Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology, 159). Complete volume.

The British astronomer and cosmologist Ted Harrison had long been fascinated by Olbers' Paradox. Writing in this volume, he notes that the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers "was the first to show that the radiation density everywhere in an infinite static universe should equal the radiation density at the surface of the stars" " (Harrison, p. 271). In other words, Olbers' paradox is that the sky is dark at night. Also known as the ‘dark night sky paradox', the issue is simple: If the universe is infinite and filled with stars, the surface brightness of the night sky should be the same as the Sun's, so the night sky should be as bright as the daytime sky.

Olbers' paradox inspired a number of important contributions to the development of cosmology and astronomy, but it was Harrison who, writing here, "published detailed calculations that solved the paradox by concluding that stars do not generate enough energy to illuminate the entire sky" (Wikipedia).


Harrison argues that "Cumbersome time-retarded integrations in an expanding metric tend to cover up the energy discrepancy and obscure the essential physics of the problem. As shown in 1964 [in this paper], the thermodynamic differential equations analogous to the equations for radiation in an expanding cavity are much simpler to understand; these equations immediately reveal, for example, the possible contribution of radiation before the birth of stars, the importance of the luminous lifetime of stars and the age of the universe, and irrelevance of spatial curvature" (Bertotti, Modern Cosmology, 43).

ALSO INCLUDED: In "Relationship of palaeomagnetic reversals and micropalaeontology in two late Cenozoic cores from the Pacific Ocean", Christopher Harrison and Brian Funnell -- working in "in two equatorial Pacific ocean bed cores in which the extinction of one species of radiolarian coincided more or less exactly with the geomagnetic reversal just under 1 million years ago" -- confirm Brunhes-Matuyama and here become the first to record reversals in deep-sea sediments (Lamb, Climate Vol. 2; (Jacobs, Reversals of the Earth's Magnetic Field, 227). In the same paper, they also "demonstrated that the last reversal of the Earth's magnetic field occurred within the Quaternary" (Jacobs). Note that the front and rear original wraps for this issue are bound within. CONDITION & DETAILS: London: Macmillan and Co. 4to (263 x 200mm). Volume 204, complete. [xlil], 608, [8]. Attractively bound in clean and bright red cloth, gilt-lettered at the spine. Tightly and very solidly bound. Ex-library with minimal markings (slight tonal difference at the spine from spine label removal. A few scattered institutional stamps within; light). In-text illustrations throughout. Includes original front wraps for the October 3, 1964 issue and the front and rear wraps for November 7th, 1964 issue bound in at the rear. Bright and very clean throughout. Very good + condition.