The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1916-02-18

Were Its Motion Suddenly Arrested the
Earth Would Be Vaporized by the
Heat Generated and a New Nebula
Would Blaze In the Heavens.
The direction and speed of the earth's
fight are the resultants of two motions
with which it 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 call the resultant or combined
speed of the earth in its actual spiral
trajectory twenty-five miles per second.
This means that if 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
and night Ctwenty-four hours the earth
travels 1900,S miles!
Compared with the velocity of pro-
jectiles, the speed of the earth's flight
is so great that the swiftest Of them
would seem to stand still. A rifle bull
let may go, say, one-third of a mile per
second in the first moments Of its fight
that is, sixty times slower than the
earth, which never stops or slows up.
The initial velocity of some projec-
tiles may be half a mile per second, or
forty-four times slower than the earth.
If a cannon could be planted out in
space and fired at the earth from dis
lance equal to one-quarter of the earth's
diameter (Which would be like hunter
firing his rifle about eighteen inches
from a deer's side) and If the shot
were aimed at the front edge Of the fly
ing earth Imagining the latter fat like
a disk and fired with an undiminishing
velocity Of half a mile per second 1t
would not only miss its mark, but the
whole breadth of the earth would have
passed by before the ball had traversed
one-tenth of the original distance sepa-
rating the cannon from the earth.
The motion of the earth becomes pos
sibly even more impressive when we
consider the awful energy that 1t pro-
duces. Kinetic energy, or the capacity
to do work, such as striking blow, is
measured by multiplying the mass of
the moving body by the square of its
velocity and dividing the product by g
In order to get the result in foot
pounds we reckon the mass in pounds
and divide again by 80 or by ca in all.
The reason for dividing by 80 (more
exactly 32.1S) is that that number is
the unit Tin feet per second) of the
earth's gravitation, or the acceleration
of gravity.
Calculated in this way, the kinetic
energy of the earth comes out at more
than ninety septillion 90 followed by
twenty-four Zeros) foot pounds! Fig
ured in another way. the energy in the
flying earth is equivalent to nearly
three sextilllons of horsepower, the
horsepower being the measure of the
work done by $4,000 foot pounds of
energy developed in one minute.
That is to say. If the earth could be
brought to rest In one minute and all
Its energy turned into driving machin-
cry 1t would develop nearly three sex
tillions of horsepower. But If it were
brought to rest In one second 1t would
develop sixty times more horsepower
Then we may consider the thermal
effects of the earths kinetic energy IL
by instantaneous arrest of the motion
1t were turned into heat. There would
be sudden development of so tremen-
dous a 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 lit
tie new nebula, twinkling like n thistle
down blown into the sky of space.
Thereafter the dissipated earth would
appear in catalogue on that faroff
world under the name of Jones Neb-
ula." and nobody, casually glancing at
1t from an observatory and unsympa-
thetically noting it's extreme exiguity.
would ever think of the heartbreaking
history that had been nebulized in that
speck of cosmic vapor.-Garrett p.
Serviss in New York Journal.