The Owosso times., 1913-09-12
ART OF WEIGHING,
Wonderful Scales That Are Not
Made of Anything.
THE LAW OF FALLING BODIES
BY This, Thanks to Newton and Lieb.
nitx and the Calculus of Differentials.
the Weight of Suns and Planets May
Be Accurately Determined.

nitx and the Calculus of Differsntials
the Weight of Suns and Planets May
Be Accurately Determined.
The art Of weighing has expanded
into a comprehensive science and can
no longer be called a mere art. Scales
are made Of metal, but the set herein
described Is not made of anything
Scales are In hourly use that can
weigh a pencil mark whose length Is
one-fourth Of an inch: or section of
u hair Of equal length. The usual
practice In weighing runs from grains.
ounces. pounds up to tons. usually one
ton, and then up to fifty or more tons
in railroad weighing. costing hundreds
and thousands of dollars.
But humans would find 1t quite diff
cult to make scales that would weigh
millions. billions. trilllons, quadrillions.
quintlllions. sextillions, septillions. CO.
tillions and nonillions Of tons, or de
cillions. An instrument able to weigh
a decillion tons can now be purchased
for one cent-a pencil. The scales are
not made Of metal; instead a set and
fixed specific speed Is the next to all
powerful engine used. But II is far
more easy to run n locomotive or
steamship without knowing single
law Of these complex machines than
to even attempt to use the speed
scales without knowing every minute
detail Of every velocity law Of NOV
ing bodies.
Let a street car start from rest and
keep moving faster and faster until Its
rate Of motion is, say. twenty miles
per hour at the end Of one minute. II
the speed of the car increased uniform
ly during the entire minute its aver
age speed Is ten miles per hour. be-
cause 1t started from rest and in
creased to twenty miles per hour. II
body moves during one minute AT
twenty miles per hour the distance
traversed will be speed multiplied by
time. or twenty miles multiplied by
one-slxtieth Of an hour. or one-third
Of mile: but the average speed in
case of the car Is ten miles per hour.
80 that the distance moved over is half
as great or one-sixth mile. This Is
fundamental law Of nature and Is o.
enormous Importance.
Law: For uniformly increasing
speed. starting from rest, the velocity
Increases with the time. but the dis.
tance traversed is that moved over by
the moving body with its average
speed. or one-half
II measuring the distance fallen
through by body let fall at the rig
idly exact beginning Of one second OF
time to the rigidly exact end thereof Is
difficult. what shall be said Of finding
how fast II Is falling at the end Of the
second. Go try; work from the ages Of
twenty to sixty years daily and you
will fail. The fact is. the time required
to find the mathematically exact spc.
cifc speed Of falling body in still air
was almost that required to measure
the distance of the nearest star. about
120 years
Then Atwood invented his machine
and this finally came to some near ap
proach to accuracy. But this instru.
ment Of precision fell far short Of the
electrical chronographic apparatus
When all Of this very complex mechan
ism Is In perfect order 1t releases the
ball at the exact beginning Of sec
ond and records the absolute time on
the cylinder Of chronograph electric
ally and repeats the process at the alb
solute end Of the second so far as hu
man hands are able to do rigidly accu
rate work
The moment that those supermcn.
mighty power, beside which all else
human pales into insignificance-t
stupendOus calculus or differentials-
every mathematician saw immediately
that one Of natures most magnificent
laws was found in falling bodies And
then began the relentless and arduous
self imposed work OF more than a hun
dred years to find the set specific speed
acquired by falling body at the in
Simultaneous and absolutely exact end
Of the first exactly measured second OF
time since man appeared.
The result IL one grand. all poten:
all powerful mean or average Of cen
tury Of world wide measures. the d!a
mond Of diamonds the most valnabl"
number in possession of man, the as.
Economical balance:
Sixteen and one-tenth feet fallen to
end Of the first second: 3o2 feet per
second speed Mt end Of first second
That is. body let fall will. undr
the action Of the enrth's attraction OF
gravitation. fall 1G.1 feet during the
first absolute second Of time. and NJ
the absolute end Of the second will bp
In motion with velocity Of 1922 feet
per second These numbers constitute
the most accurate and all powerful
scales in observation-disclosures Lucien Lar