A Moveable Feast

In his Norwegian Forest, Haruki Murakami (1949 - ) through one of the characters in the book says that people who has read Scott Fitzgerald's (1896-1940) The Great Gatsby three times could be his friend. He also says that turn to any page of The Great Gatsby and start reading, and you will not be disappointed because there is always something in it.

The Great Gatsby was published in 1925. Fitzgerald's fame was closely associated with the "Jazz Age" in the 1920s. He made several excursions to Europe, notably Paris and the French Riviera, and became friends with many in the American expatriate community in Paris, notably Ernest Hemingway (1899 - 1962, Nobel prize in literature 1954).

Hemingway's friendship with Fitzgerald was one of 'admiration and hostility'. He described it in A Moveable Feast, with no lack of humour and a touch of science.

The story is like this. Fitzgerald and his wife had to leave their car, which was without a top, in Lyon because of bad weather. Fitzgerald asked if Hemingway would go down with him to pick up the car and drive up with him to Paris. So there they went and picked up the car, but on the way back, there was again heavy rain and they became held up in a hotel.

Figure 1      Scott Fitzgerald, 1937.

Glory

Earlier on there was a press report showing a photograph of a 'glory' taken from an aeroplane. I took a similar photo a few years back while flying over Yunnan. It shows the shadow of the plane on the clouds, with concentric rings of blue on the inside and red on the outside. There have been observations elsewhere of these primary rings being accompanied by as many as three to four similar rings of larger diameter.

Figure 1      'Glory'

These rings are produced when light is refracted and reflected after entering water droplets (a cloud is made up of water droplets). The ring diameter is related to the size of the water droplets. The smaller the glory diameter, the larger the droplets that produce it.



Figure 2      Light refracted and reflected inside a water droplet

Here a light ray hitting the edge of a water droplet is refracted, reflected and then refracted again, before clinging to the surface of the droplet and conveyed the rest of the way around the droplet to the backward direction (180 degrees).

A glory may also be seen from a high point, for example on a mountain, when there are clouds down below and the sun is behind you, projecting your shadow onto the cloud. You may be rewarded by the sight of a shadow of your head surrounded by coloured haloes. What is unique about the shadow, moreover, is that if someone else is with you, his/her shadow does not have such haloes. This is probably how the name 'glory' came about in the first place.

The observation of light travelling in a straight and forming an image after entering the eyes dates back a long time. During China's Warring states period, the philosopher Mozi had this to say about light forming an image: "Light falling on a person comes from a source radiating in all directions. Light from beneath forms a tall shadow; light from above gives a short shadow. Blocking the light with the foot produces an image at the top; blocking with the head gives an image down below."

We do not know why this concept of light was not further developed in China. A few centuries later, the great scientist Alhazen (Abū 'Alī al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham, 965 - 1039), born in Basra of present-day Iraq, was the first to prove by experiments the formation of images. He pointed out that an image of an object is formed by light reflected from the object and subsequently entering the eyes, and argued that vision occurs in the brain, rather than the eyes.



Figure 3      Alhazen (965 - 1039)

Apart from optics, Alhazen was involved in the study of many science subjects and published a large number of works. His insights had far-reaching effects on the development of science for more than five centuries. His Book of Optics has been ranked alongside Isaac Newton's (1643 - 1727) Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica as one of the most influential books in physics for introducing an early scientific method, and for initiating a revolution in optics and visual perception.

Next time you go outdoor, be on the lookout for what is around you. God knows you may be able to discover an interesting phenomenon or two.



B.Y. Lee


Reference:
(a)   Atmospheric phenomena - Readings from 'Scientific American', W.H. Freeman and Co., 1980.
(b)   A Field Guide to the Atmosphere, V.J. Schaefer and J.A. Day, Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston (1981).
(c)   'Scientific American', September 2001.
(d)   (in Chinese only).
(e)   Wikipedia

Dreaming River South

I went to a concert the other day, which featured music by Finnish and Chinese composers to commemorate in Hong Kong the 60^th anniversary of Finland-China relations.

Of the Finnish composers, Jean Sibelius, of 'Finlandia' fame, is probably the best known. His music that evening, The Lover Suite, though not frequently performed here, is nothing short of a gem.

Remember the Red Chamber, composed by Tung Chao-ming based on original themes created by Wang Liping years ago, is a nice surprise. Its beautiful but subtle and melancholic melodies came out naturally from the cello of Trey Lee, exquisitely complemented by The Avanti! Chamber Orchestra (Finland) under the baton of Dmitri Slobodeniouk. I asked myself why I had not heard them before. Little wonder that the work would hit the top classical music list quite soon.

The book Dream of the Red Chamber by 18^th century writer Cao Xueqin (1715?-1763?) is well known. The Cao family had long been servants to the Qing court and, through trust by the royalty, became a revered one in Nanjing by the time of Cao's great grandfather. Cao's grandfather, Cao Yin, was a playmate to Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) when they were young. During his reign Kanxi visited the Nanjing region six times, four of which were hosted by the Cao family.

Cao's grandfather, Cao Yin was acquainted with Nalan Xingde (1655-1685), often known as the best ci⁽¹⁾ poet in the Qing period. Cao Yin once wrote: "Every household vies to sing the Drinking Water Ci, but who really knows Nalan's broodings?"⁽²⁾ Nalan's Drinking Water Ci collection was already widely circulated at the time.

Figure 1      Nalan Xingde (courtesy : china.org.cn)