Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1911-02-24
Prof. Mcmillan Of Chicago Univer'
sty Doubts Nebu'ar
Theory.
u One Could Throw Baseball Hara
Enough It Would Never Touch
earth-sun Must Eventually Ex-
haust Ito Energy.

yard tho earth at the rate Of one-twen'
tieth of an inch second. and the
earth is failing toward the sun at the
rate of one-eighth Of an inch every ~
miles. But the moon never Will lali
into the earth and the earth never Will
fail iAto the sun. The reason - that
while the earth Is falling toward the
aun,gat the same time It Is falling out
VA from 1t sufficiently to keep the
sams relative. distance. II you slana
on ton, Of a high building and drop
baseball it will travel to the ground
in Z straight line But II you throw 1t
outward It will reach the ground IN
curve and the farther you throw II the
srester will be the arc 1t will de-
scribe. II you should throw 1t far
suoush, It wouldn't strike the GROUND
n ~. but would continue in curve
Ill around the earth and come back
10 your hand. That Is what the eartn
Il dolne-it il being thrown around the
ann every "a hours and never strikes
NJ n'"'-
Astronomy, the oldest and most e.
act science, nevertheless, Is discover
Ing Something new all the time. Proi.
Nc1(illan asserts. Great progress
hai,Ibeen made even in the last ton
years. iaas f.0
most OF what we know about the
stars,"' he said. I'VE have learned quite
recently. We know them now as well
a though we had scratched them Win
q nail. We have reached point where
10 almost are ready to reject the neo'
ulaf theory of the creation Of the uni
verse" We know more about the sun
than I'VE ever did. The only thing
about that the science Of astronomy
has not outgrown is the Newtonian
law Of gravity-that remains and never
can be changed Mechanically. as.
tronomy has reached high point OF
exactness. Astronomy is the mother
Of mathematics; it has pushed the
mathematicians forward to every tri-
umph. they ever achieved"
could the mathematicians con-
struct a new solar system that would
work % we'll as the present one!
Pro-. Mcmillan was asked.
ION no other theory that mathemat-
les ever could evolve would the solar
system work" he said. Change 1t a
hairs breath, and there would be a
wreck on the main line past all I'M
tangling. That does not mean that.
perfect as 1t is, the solar system will
goton forever. 1t will not. There IL
no such thing as perpetual motion. and
some time our universe as We know 1t
Will cease to exist The sun has been
pouring forth its tremendous light and
heat for flve hundred million years
Enormous as that reservoir Of energy
10, It must eventually exhaust Itself
When 1t does life on the planets
must cease" &aa %,ua'.' ''a
about when will that happen. pro
tessor?" Du a@ sl uu
% say in twenty or thirty millior
years. It isn't anything new for
sun to 70 out. The sky is full Of ex
tinct suns" oaa
lis It true that the moon came Out
Of the. Pacific ocean? People out II
California say you can see the edges
where It was broken on.
"Well, it's possible. but more likely
the moon, the earth and all the planets
we're born Of tremendous collision be-
tween our sun and another sun. You
can see that there would be sparks fly.
Ing in such q smash. Well. our earth
10 one Of the sparks"
no
again."
1T could, If the other sun were big
enough to stand the heat. Otherwise 1t
would be consumed before 1t reached
our luminary. II column of ice 40
miles in diameter and as many million
miles long. as you choose to make 1t
were projected at our sun at velocity
Of two hundred thousand miles a sec.
ond, It never would get there-the sun
would melt It, So you see anybody
that reaches the sun must be able to
stand the racket, SO to speak.
This collision theory is the basis
of the new hypothesis Of the creation
Of our universe that Is displacing the
nebular theory. According to the new
theory the earth never was a molten
mass. It was built cold. In the begin
ningI am talking humanity now, 1!
astronomy there Is no beginning ant
no end-in the beginning the eartf
was relatively small fragment ant
its growth has been due to the accre
tons of meteoric matter. For million!
Of years this matter has been falling
on the earth, and is falling today. NTh'
heat In the center OF the earth sim
ply Is caused by the compression O
the outer mass which sets up fric
ton"
l'If there Is no end to matter VIII.
should the, sun go out?"
The sun is nothing except a resel
voir of energy, and 1t is sending 1t GU
and taking none In. I do not say tina
this energy is ending, 1T still will b
in the universe. but no longer in tn
sun, and when 1t ceases to come fror
the sun that will be the end of tn
earth SO far as life is concerned. Tn
universe will keep on, only we won
b here" r.Ul.. ..#=
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