The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-11-15
OUR FLYING WORLD
Its Awful Velocity In Its Spiral
WhirI Through Space.
THE RESULT IF IT STOPPED.

Were Its Motion Suddenly Arrested the
Earth Would Be vaporized by tho
Heat Generated and a New NebuIa
Would Blaze In the Heavens.
The direction and speed OF the earth's
| flight are the resultants OF two motions
| with which 1t Is endowed-the one
around the sun, the other with the sun
| straight away through space. The COM
bination of these simultaneous motions
causes the earth to travel In spiral
path whose axis is directed nearly to-
ward the bright star Vega, the most
beautiful In the northern sky.
In Its orbit, or annual path around
| the sun, the earths mean speed Is
eighteen and one half miles per second.
while its speed of transition toward
Vega, which it shares with the sun, is
| about twelve miles per second. We
may cali the resultant or combined
speed OF the earth In rs actual spiral
trajectory twenty-five miles per second.
This means that IL you could stand
beside 1t and see the earth rush by Its
whole enormous globe, 5000 miles in
| diameter. would pass your eye in about
six minutes. 1t means that in one day
aud night twenty -four hours the earth
travels 1,9O0,sO0 miles!
Compared with the velocity OF pro-
jectlles, the speed of the earth's fight
Is SO great that the swiftest OF them
would seem to stand stili. A rife bull
let may go. say. third OF mile per
second la the first moments Of its f,ight
that rs. sixty times slower than the
earth. which never stops or slows up.
Tho ,initill velocity OF some projec-
tiles may be half mile per second. or
forty-four times slower than the earth.
II cannon could be planted out In
space and fred at the earth from dis
ta,ice equal to,one- quarter Of the earth's
diameter (Which would be like hunter
firing his rife about eighteen inches
from Il deers sidel and il the shot
were aimed at the front edge OF the iy-
ing earth dmaginlng the latter fat like
a disk and fired with an undlninishing
velocity OF half mile per second 1t
would not only miss Its marx. but the
whole breadth OF the earth would have
passed by before the ball had trayersed
one-tenth ofthe original distance sepa-
rating the cannon from The earth.
The motion OF the earth becomes pos.
sibly even more impressive when we
consider the Itwfnl energy that 1t pro-
,duces. Kinetic energy, or the capacity
TO do work, such Ms striking a blow. Is
measured by multiplying the mass OF
the moving body by the square OF its
velocity aud dividing The product by2.
In order to gel the result in foot
pounds we reckon Tue mass in pounds
and divide again by 80 or by "a In all.
The reason FOR dividing by 80 (more
exactly 30 lSl is that that number is
the unit tin feet per seeendJ of the
earth's grayitation. ar the acceicration
OF gravity
Calculated IN this way, the kine,ic
energy Of the earth comes oui at more
than ninety sfptilliop so followed by
twenty four zerosi foot pounds, Fig.
ured In another way, the energy in the
dying earth is equivalent to nearly
three sextillions of horsepower. the
! horsepower being the measure OF the
work done by $4,000 foot pounds of
energy developed In one minute.
e.y That is TO say. IL the earth could be
brought TO rest IN one minute and all
Its energy turned into driving machin-
cry tt would develop nearly three sex
rillions Of horsepower. But If it were
brought to rest In one second It would
develop sixty times more horsepower
Then we may consider the thermal
effects OF the earth's kinetic energy II
by instantaneous arrest of the motion
1t were turned into heat. There would
be Il sudden development of SO tremen-
dous temperature that the earth
might be vaporized. Puff! And some
astronomer on some distant planet.
aiming his telescope through the cool
evening air, would catch sight OF a lit
tie new nebula. twinkling like thistle
down blown into tue skysof space.
Thereafter the dlSsipatcd earth would
appear In "a catalogue ON that faroff
world under the name of Jones Neb.
ula," and nobody. casually glnncing at
1t from nm observatory and unsympa-
thetically noting Its extreme exiguity.
would ever think Uf the heartbreaking
history that had been nebulized In that
speck of cosmic ynpor.-Garrett p.
Serviss in New York Journal.