"Spherical Cow is an excellent guide to the very important art of quickly finding approximate answers to
problems such as "what was the pH of rainfall before the the Industrial Revolution?" This book illustrates
step-by-step how to solve dozens of problems of this type."
--Journal of Chemical Information & Computational Science
"This book should be read and used by all students of environmental studies, and should be an important acquisition
for any research, teaching, or general academic library."
--Choice
University Science Books Web Site, November, 2000
Summary
This innovative compendium offers a variety of techniques for approaching contemporary environmental problems.
Challenging, real-world situations and worked-out solutions provide the means both for gaining insights into the
process of problem solving and for thinking quantitatively and creatively about such environmental concerns as
energy and water resources, food production, indoor air pollution, acid rain, and human influences on climate.
Table of Contents
1. Warm-Up Exercises
2.Tools of the Trade
A. Steady-State Box Models and Residence Times
B. Thermodynamics and Energy Transfer
C. Chemical Reactions and Equilibria
D. Non-Steady-State Box Models
3. A. Biogeochemistry
B. Climatology
C. Survival of Populations
Appendix: Useful Numbers
Glossary
Bibliography
Answers to Exercises; Index.
