Evening star., 1933-10-16
SCIENCE HANDBOOK
MADE UP-T0-DATE|
Smithsonian Issues New Ia.
bIes, Including Discover
les Since War.

An up-to-date invoice Of mans
knowledge Of the physical universe has
Just been issued by the Smithsonian In
stitution.
The dimensions of things, from pro-
ton and light wave to star cloud and
galaxy, are tabulated for scientific
workers in the Smithsonian physical
tables the standard authority for such
data in the United States, prepared by
Frederick E. Fowle of the Smithsonian
staff
The present issue is a condensation
of the findings Of physical science dur
ing what has been the most remarkable
extension Of the frontiers Of human
knowledge In history. New tables were
last issued IA years ago, when the squirt
of physical discovery was just gaining
momentum from the push of the World
War.
Great Strides Made.
Since then there have been far
voyages over strange seas of thought.
The physicist has penetrated hitherto
undreamed of distances toward the in
f1nitely great and the infinitely little
only to see the horizons of time and
space forever receding before his tele-
scope, his ultra microscope, his spectro-
scope and his interferometer
The very frontiers of creation itself
have been extended many million fold.
Back in 1919 the idea that the great
spiral nebulae were island galaxies of
starts comparable in size to the Milky
Way galaxy itself was sometime to
arouse tolerant smiles of conservative
astronomers.
The objects listed range in mass from
the great nebulae which have a mean
mass of 100000, 900 times that of the
sun, to the tiny electron with a density
OF only about 90 octrillionths of gram,
which is barely over the edge of moth
ing and so small special terms lose all
practical meaning.
The coSm1c ray, the positron and the
neutron appear for the first time in
the tables as physical entities. The
latter two were undreamed of when the
tables were last iSsud. Dimension range
from the mlcroangstrom, 10 quadrill-
lontns OF a meter, to the parsec of as
economical measurements, or approxi-
mately $4,000, ,O00,O0o,Oo0 miles, which
Is sused in descriptions Of the unimae-
1nably vast reaches of space.
Dimensions Conjectural.
On the farthest frontiers of physical
creation dimensions still are largely
conJectural and reach to fantastic fig
ures. Thus the total number of cleo
irons and protons in the universe, fol-
lowing the calculations of Sir Arthur
Eoolngton, is given as 10 followed by 78
clphers. and the density Of interstellar
space as 10 septillionths of a gram per
cubic centimeter.
Two estimates are given from which
can be calculated the total size of Gre
alton, assuming it to be a finite thing.
according to the various relativistic
theories. One, that of Hubble, puts
RADIUS OF curvature at approximately
3O,0OO,O00 900 parsecs, or somewhere
around 600 septillion miles. The other,
that OF De Sitter. puts the radius of
curvature at approximately 100000
parsecs
The temperature of interstellar space
IS calculated, following Eddington. at q
little over 8 degrees above absolute
zero, the point at which all molecular
motion ceases and it cannot possibly be
any colder.
Properties Described.
All the old and many new physical
constants are presented in the tables
with their latest values. The mechan-
1cal properties of a large number of |
commonly used materials are described |
1or the convenience of engineers and |
physicists, and a large section is de- |!
voted to the behavior and properties Of |
various wave lengths of light.
since 1919, physicists the world over |
nave gone far toward an understand !
ing of the makeup and mechanism of i
the atom and the energies involved in |
holding it together The tables deal |
ing with constants and measures in |
this field were subjected to radical re-
vision. Another field, the aspect of |
which has been markedly changed in |
the last IA years, is that Of radioactive |
1ty to which large section is devoted |
The Smithsonian tables were first |
issued in 1896. almost at the dawn of |
the age of electricity, when physics and |
chemistry were dissatisfied sciences |
with very little idea of the wonder |
worlds which lay beyond the sensory |
perceptions of everyday life.