Summary of Gabrielle Walker's An Ocean of Air

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The traditional way to understand the world was through a combination of divine revelation and abstract reasoning. But a new breed of scientist called natural philosophers had begun to look at the world differently. #2 Galileo was a famous philosopher in Italy, but he knew that in itself wouldn’t save him from the fire. He had damaged his eyes by staring through a telescope at wonders he had discovered, and now he was blind. He had started the experiments described in his manuscript while awaiting his summons to Rome. #3 Galileo believed that air is heavy, and he tested this by taking a large glass bottle and forcing air into it until it was three-quarters full of water. He then weighed the bottle, opened the valve, and allowed the pressurized air to escape. The weight of the air that escaped was exactly equal to the weight of the water that remained. #4 The weight of air is so extreme that even Galileo, the man who first measured it, didn’t see the whole story. He didn’t realize that the air above us is still heavy, and he believed that our atmosphere as a whole is incapable of pushing.