The Breckenridge news., 1906-10-31
EIGHT OF THE Sun.
HOW THE ASTRONOMERS SOLVE
THIS WONDERFUL PROBLEM.


ter Contained In the Great Orb.
To weigh the sun, moon, earth or
amy other body, said Professor Edgar
L. Larkin, the celebrated director Of
Echo Mountain observatory, to the
! writer, is not very difficult matter,
! though to those ignorant of astronomy
and mathematics it would perhaps ap-
| pear so. OF course weight is merely a
relative term, for at the exact center
of gravity a body weighs nothing at
| all. Weight varies as we approach the
! gravitation point or recede from ii,
and the expression as employed in ev-
! eryday life-when we buy pound Of
steak or ton of coals-smply means
the weight used on the surface of the
| earth because we live there.
! Now, supposing you are desirous of
/ weighing the earth, how would you go
| about it? Well, if your education had
| been neglected and you were in conse-
| quence ignorant of mathematics you
might decide to cut up this terrestrial
globe of ours in blocks and bring each
block to the surfaCE of the earth aud
there weigh it on an ordinary pair of
scales. The operation would doubtless
| be a costly and fatiguiug one, and per-
! hapS many unscientific landowners
might object to your carrying off their
property even though you explained
that it was merely as temporary
loan. But let us for arguments sake
suppose that you succeeded.
Well, having carried each block to
the surface and many of them would.
of course. have been brought from the
very center of the earth one at a
time returning each to its proper place
before weighing the next and having
discovered that each block weighed 4
ton, then before your labors ended and
the last block of earth had been placed
on the scales you would have dealt
with rather less than seven SeXtillions.
This of course is a tremendous num-
Der of tons for any moving mass to
weigh, but there is Il time twice each
year when the earth actually weighs
nothing at all. In October last this
earth gradually began to lose weight
like some huge giant dying of a de-
cline until at a certain moment of time
it weighed only an ounce, then half an
ounce. then quarter, and finally. just
for about the fifty .thOusandth part of
n second it weighed absolutely nothing
whatever-not even SO much as Il soap
bubble which baby might blow away.
To realize this you must remember
that the earth does not travel round
the sun i'm an exact circle, so that the
distance from the sun is always vary.
ing, which Of course alters the power
of attraction or, i'm other words, the
earth's' weight. But i'm October aud
April of each year the earth is at an
exact average distance during the frac-
tion of second, at which time. as |
have said before, it weighs nothing
How short a space Of time this is may
be judged from the fact that the earth
moves at the rate of eighteen and
half miles every second.
But to weigh the earth in the manner
suggested would be very costly mat
ter, and so ii is found to be more sat
lsfactory to employ mathematics. when
we shall arrive at the same results. as
suming Of course that we are correct
i'm our deductions. And now as to the
most usual means employed in weigh
ing the sun. Having satisfied ourselves
as to the true weight of the earth. we
call that "One" or Unity" That is
the basis on which we work.
The next thing to do is to mount to
some elevation-the top of tower or
the roof of a house will answer our
purpose very well-drop a stone and
find out how far it will fall in one sec
oIfd of time and what its exact rate Of
speed will be at the end Of the first
second.
This is not so easy as ii sounds but
we can spare ourselves the fatigue of
calculating, for after 300 years scien-
lists have by means OF the most deli
cate instruments arrived at the proved
conclusion that at the end of the first
second the stone will be at distance
of 1871 feet from the starting point and
will be then travelling at the rate OF
32.2 feet per second. This 32.2 is the
ulObt lONAOA III Jul NaANhAo~
tlons and has been called the astro-
nomical scales, for by means Of Ii we
can weigh the sldereal universe.
Now. here, said Professor Larkln,
taking a paper from his desk, Is an ar
tIcle which wrote some time ago on
the weighing OF the sun, and do not
think you can do better than make an
extract from II, which will save me
much needless repetition, and he hand
ed me the manuscript, from which
quote the following paragraphs:
Every object In the celestial vault
seen by the eye OF man Is a falling
body. The earth is a body forever fall
ing toward the sun and the moon for
ever toward the earth. IL we can find
with what speed the earth Is falling to-
ward the sun at the end of our exact
second a clew is obtained that will lead
through a maze of figures to the mass
of the sun. This must be true, for II
has been discovered that II the earth
contained quadruple Its present guam
tity of matter the stone would fall at