THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher who influenced centuries of scientific thought, did not believe that wind was air at all.

"For the same air persists both when it is in motion and when it is still. Hence wind is not ‘air’ at all, for then there would also have been wind when the air was not in motion, seeing that the same air which formed the wind persists."

An intriguing argument. By separating wind and air, Aristotle essentially separated air from the forces that make it move, i.e. wind = air + force, which matches our understanding today.

In this section, we continue the tradition of ancient Greek philosophers by discussing the fundamental forces that cause still air to move, and the patterns formed by the resulting air movement.