The Jeffersonian Democrat. [volume] (Chardon, Ohio) 1854-1865, 1859-02-18
A Few Curious Facts.

The circumference ol the earth Is 25,-
zoo miles. A railway train travelling
necessarily night and day, at the rate of
e5 miles an hour, would require six weeks
to 90 round it. A tunnel through the
earth, from England to New Zealand,
would be nearly 5000 miles long.
A musket ball having velocity sufficient
to range seventeen miles in vacuum,
actually falls short Of half e mile in the
air, owing to the resistance OF that huia ;
and so rapidly does the resistance increase
with the velocity, that it would at length
become SO great that ball would be
stopped as il fred against stone wall.
a certain species Of fungus has been
known to attain the size OF a gourd in one
nitht and it is calculated that the
cellules, of which il is composed, must
amount to $4,000, 1000, 900. II 1t grew IN
twelve hours this would give four billions
per hour, or over six N ilions each minute.
Animacules have Been discovered so
small tina. 900, 900 would not exceed n
grain of sand, and 100000, 600 could
sport in drop Of water, Yet each Of
these must have blood vessels, nerves,
muscles, circulating fluids, &C., like larger
animals.
Surprising light to be material sub.
stance, it has been calculated that par
ticle Of light cannot weigh more Than one
million millionth part OF grain +; for II
larger it would destroy the eye, On The
same principle, it appears that the parti-
| cles OF light that flow from candle IN
second are more than six billion times as
raaay as the grains Of sand in the whole
earth, il each cubic inch contains one
million.
The opinion that light is material. how.
ever, has given place TO what is called the
undulatory theory. This supposes the
earth to be filed with very subtle elias
tic fluid, called the luminous ether, and
that the vibrations of this ether communi'
cate the impression of light 10 the eye
Just as the vibrations of the air convey tc
the ear the idea Of sound. But, upon this
hypothesis, the inicrences are no less
wonderful than upon the supposilon thai
light moves at the rate OF 1872, 5jO males
per second and who can conceive o
vibrations spreading on all sides OF lu'
One OF the most wonderful achieve.
ments of astronomers, is the weighing oil
the bodies of the solar system. II is GER
tain, for instance, that the mass Of Jupiter
is more than 322, and less than 323, times
the mass OF this globe--so accurately has
this work been accomplished. The mass
OF the sun is $50, ,55l times greater than
the united masses Of all the planets.
The planet Saturn is composed ofmattel
only half as heavy as water; Mercury /:
considerably heavier than quicksilver and
one. third heavier than lead and our own
globe is twice as heavy rs common iock,
and half AS heavy as lead--a fact which
shows the great density OF its interna
parts.
A fash Of lightning on the earth would
be visible on the moon in second and {
quarter on the sun, in eight minutes
on Jupiter, when farthes; from us, in 81
minutes on Uranus, in two hours; ; or
Neptune, in four hours and a quarter
on the star Vega, of the first magnitude
in 10 years on n star OF the eighth mag
ntude, in 1870 years on star OF the
Twelfth magnitude, in 1000 years and
such stars are visible through the tele.
scope.
Ii Place says-I have asccrtained
that between the heavenly bodies all
! attractions aIe transmitted with We
loc,ty which, if it be not Infinite, sur
passes several thousand times the velocity
OF light. Iii, arnoLator estimates 1t a
eight million times greater than that o
f light.