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wind, and thunderbolts: for the cause of them all is the same.
As we have said, there are two kinds of exhalation, moist and dry, and the
atmosphere contains them both potentially. It, as we have said before,
condenses into cloud, and the density of the clouds is highest at their upper
limit. (For they must be denser and colder on the side where the heat escapes
to the upper region and leaves them. This explains why hurricanes and
thunderbolts and all analogous phenomena move downwards in spite of the
fact that everything hot has a natural tendency upwards. Just as the pips that
we squeeze between our fingers are heavy but often jump upwards: so these
things are necessarily squeezed out away from the densest part of the cloud.)
Now the heat that escapes disperses to the up region. But if any of the dry
exhalation is caught in the process as the air cools, it is squeezed out as the
clouds contract, and collides in its rapid course with the neighbouring clouds,
and the sound of this collision is what we call thunder. This collision is
analogous, to compare small with great, to the sound we hear in a flame
which men call the laughter or the threat of Hephaestus or of Hestia. This
occurs when the wood dries and cracks and the exhalation rushes on the flame
in a body. So in the clouds, the exhalation is projected and its impact on dense
clouds causes thunder: the variety of the sound is due to the irregularity of the
clouds and the hollows that intervene where their density is interrupted. This
then, is thunder, and this its cause.
It usually happens that the exhalation that is ejected is inflamed and burns
with a thin and faint fire: this is what we call lightning, where we see as it
were the exhalation coloured in the act of its ejection. It comes into existence
after the collision and the thunder, though we see it earlier because sight is
quicker than hearing. The rowing of triremes illustrates this: the oars are
going back again before the sound of their striking the water reaches us.
However, there are some who maintain that there is actually fire in the
clouds. Empedocles says that it consists of some of the sun’s rays which are
intercepted: Anaxagoras that it is part of the upper ether (which he calls fire)
which has descended from above. Lightning, then, is the gleam of this fire,
and thunder the hissing noise of its extinction in the cloud.
But this involves the view that lightning actually is prior to thunder and
does not merely appear to be so. Again, this intercepting of the fire is
impossible on either theory, but especially it is said to be drawn down from
the upper ether. Some reason ought to be given why that which naturally
ascends should descend, and why it should not always do so, but only when it
is cloudy. When the sky is clear there is no lightning: to say that there is, is
altogether wanton.
The view that the heat of the sun’s rays intercepted in the clouds is the
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Buch The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Titel
- The Complete Aristotle
- Autor
- Aristotle
- Datum
- ~322 B.C.
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 2328
- Schlagwörter
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156