Evening star., 1943-12-26
Wind Tunnels Offer
New Theory About
Structure Of Universe
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated prese Sciepca pd;tor


NEW YORK, Dec. 25.-A new ex-
planation of gravitation and the
present structure of the universe
has come from the wind tunnels
OF the aviation laboratories.
Those labs deal with the vortices
or Whirlpools of air that form off
from and just behind the wings of
airplanes in flight. Similar whirl-
pools, on far vaster scale, are
the basis of the new cosmogony, or
origin of the universe.
The idea is explained by Gustave
Andrew Mokrzycki, professor in the
Institute of Technology, Warsaw.
Poland, in the bulletin of Polish
arts and sciences in America and
received here through the Polish
Telegraph Agency. Prof. Mokrzycki
Is now at the University of Mon
treal.
Galaxies Rotate.
He points out that the 100000 900
huge galaxies OF stars, each about
the size of the Milky Way, which
are within sight of present tele-
scopes, are all in whirling motion.
Each big galaxy appears to be ro-
tating like a wheel Within each,
as within the Milky Way. pre-
sumably ar smaller whirls, like the
earth whir ling, and the rotations
of the sun and it's satellites.
Every on Z of the celestial whirls.
the spiral nebulae, the rings, are
duplicated either in the airplane
wind tunnels or in familiar smoke
rings and water whirlpools.
The wind tunnels make clear how
all these t00,000,000 celestial vor-
tices could have originated. The
Polish probes says it was neces-
sary only for the original matter in
space, solid and gaseous, to be in
motion, ev EN- in straight lines like
stream. All the observed whirls
would follow automatically.
Prof. Mokrzycki says the vortex
idea explains gravitation satisfac-
torily, and agrees with the laws
Newton set up. At the center of
any whirlpool. he points out, the
motion is faster than toward the
edge. In each case, this force
amounts to a strong pull toward
the center.
Gravitation Explained.
That would explain gravitation,
he thinks. On earth everything is
pulled toward earth's center. That
does away with the great difficulty
of trying to imagine what unknown
substance could exert the observed
pull of gravitation over empty spaces
between two bodies. The earth's
core, it should be remembered, Is
now supposed to be liquid, and
might rotate like a vortex.
This vortex pull also, he said,
would explain mathematically the
tipping of the earth's axis, as we'll
as that of the sun and all the
planets. The tipping comes from
the pull toward the centers of the
greater vortices to which the sun
and its satellites belong.
The peculiar spacing of the plan
cts is likewise explained, the pro-
fessor says, by the vortex idea.
The planets are spaced outward
from the sun by widening
steps. The increase In each gap
over the next inner one is great,
but proportional.
Prof. Mokrzyck1 says that by ap-
plying the Reynolds number, a
mathematical formula used on air
plane vortices, the spacing Of the
planets is found, and that this
finding agrees with the actual spac-
ing.
Planets Days Vary.
The Polish scientist finds an
other veriflcation in the rotations
of the planets. Day is not of the
same length on each because they
are either faster or slower in turn
ing on their axes than the earth.
The farther from the sun planet
lies, the faster it turns, until day
far out is only about half OF ours.
Closer in toward the sun the plan
cts revolve slower than the earth.
The motions of vortices explain
these differences, he says.
The vortex theory would explain
the formation of earth and stars
as the result Of small swirls, and
In so doing would not differ essen
TALLY from other explanations of
the condensations of original mat
ter to form the solid bodies on the
universe.
Under the vortex theory, Prof.
Mokrzycki says that the earth and
stars would be constantly growing.
Meteor studies have suggested for
a long time that the earth is slowly
growing from an infan of meteoric
dust.