The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes (1941) is a science book, written by Ralph A. Bagnold. The book laid the foundations of the scientific investigation of the transport of sand by wind. It also discusses the formation and movement of sand dunes in the Libyan Desert. During his expeditions into the Libyan Desert, Bagnold had been fascinated by the shapes of the sand dunes, and after returning to England he built a wind tunnel and conducted the experiments which are the basis of the book. The book is still a main reference in the field, and was, for instance, used by NASA for studying sand dunes on Mars. It was recently reissued by Dover.
Famous quotes containing the words physics, blown, sand and/or desert:
“It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people’s attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“Taffeta phrases, silken phrases precise,
Three-piled hyperbole, spruce affectation,
Figures pedantical—these summer flies
Have blown me full of maggot ostentation.
I do forswear them.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“This sand seemed to us the connecting link between land and water. It was a kind of water on which you could walk, and you could see the ripple-marks on its surface, produced by the winds, precisely like those at the bottom of a brook or lake. We had read that Mussulmans are permitted by the Koran to perform their ablutions in sand when they cannot get water, a necessary indulgence in Arabia, and we now understand the propriety of this provision.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave—under the deep, deep sea,
Or in wide desert where no life is found,”
—Thomas Hood (1799–1845)