Articles from October 2009
October 30, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
The supreme synthesis, the crown of all this progressive conquest of nature, would be to discover that the particles of positive and negative electricity, which make up the atoms of matter, are points or centres of disturbances of some kind in a universal ether, and that all our “energies” (light, magnetism, gravitation, etc.) are waves or strains of some kind set up in the ether by these clusters of electrons.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | 
Tags: Atoms, Axis, Clusters, Conquest, Delicate Experiment, Einstein, Electron, Electrons, Extraordinary Properties, Grave Error, Gravitation, Magnetism, Particles, Positive Electricity, Strains, Synthesis, Unification, Vortex, Waves, Whirlpool | 
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October 30, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
In a thunderstorm we have the most spectacular display in lightning of a violent and explosive rush of electrons (electricity) from one body to another, from cloud to cloud, or to the earth. In this wonderful photograph of an electrical storm note the long branched and undulating flashes of lightning. Each flash lasts no longer than the one hundred-thousandth part of a second of time.
LIGHT WAVES
Light consists of waves transmitted through the ether. Waves of light differ in length. The colour of the light depends on the wave-length. Deep-red waves (the longest) are 7/250000 inch and deep-violet waves 1/67000 inch. The diagram shows two wave-motions of different wave-lengths. From crest to crest, or from trough to trough, is the length of the wave.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | Tags: Dynamo, Electrical Storm, Electro Magnet, Fate Of The World, Gloomy Prognostications, Human Eye, Light Waves, Magnetic Circuit, Magnetic Circuits, North Pole, Peculiarities, Radio Activity, Soddy, South Pole, South Poles, Time Light, Wave Length, Wave Lengths, Wave Motions, Waves Of Light | No Comments »
October 30, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
Ether and Waves
The whole material universe is supposed to be embedded in a vast medium called the ether. It is true that the notion of the ether has been abandoned by some modern physicists, but, whether or not it is ultimately dispensed with, the conception of the ether has entered so deeply into the scientific mind that the science of physics cannot be understood unless we know something about the properties attributed to the ether. The ether was invented to explain the phenomena of light, and to account for the flow of energy across empty space. Light takes time to travel. We see the sun at any moment by the light that left it 8 minutes before. It has taken that 8 minutes for the light from the sun to travel that 93,000,000 miles odd which separates it from our earth. Besides the fact that light takes time to travel, it can be shown that light travels in the form of waves. We know that sound travels in waves; sound consists of waves in the air, or water or wood or whatever medium we hear it through. If an electric bell be put in a glass jar and the air be pumped out of the jar, the sound of the bell becomes feebler and feebler until, when enough air has been taken out, we do not hear the bell at all. Sound cannot travel in a vacuum. We continue to see the bell, however, so that evidently light can travel in a vacuum. The invisible medium through which the waves of light travel is the ether, and this ether permeates all space and all matter. Between us and the stars stretch vast regions empty of all matter. But we see the stars; their light reaches us, even though it may take centuries to do so. We conceive, then, that it is the universal ether which conveys that light. All the energy which has reached the earth from the sun and which, stored for ages in our coal-fields, is now used to propel our trains and steamships, to heat and light our cities, to perform all the multifarious tasks of modern life, was conveyed by the ether. Without that universal carrier of energy we should have nothing but a stagnant, lifeless world.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | Tags: Centuries, Coal Fields, Electric Bell, Empty Space, Glass Jar, Invisible Medium, Light Travel, Light Travels, Material Universe, Modern Physicists, Notion, Phenomena, Sound Of The Bell, Sound Travels, Sound Waves, Space Light, Steamships, Universal Carrier, Vacuum, Waves Sound | No Comments »
October 30, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
The Nature of Electricity
There is at least one manifestation in nature, and so late as twenty years ago it seemed to be one of the most mysterious manifestations of all, which has been in great measure explained by the new discoveries. Already, at the beginning of this century, we spoke of our “age of electricity,” yet there were few things in nature about which we knew less. The “electric current” rang our bells, drove our trains, lit our rooms, but none knew what the current was. There was a vague idea that it was a sort of fluid that flowed along copper wires as water flows in a pipe. We now suppose that it is a rapid movement of electrons from atom to atom in the wire or wherever the current is.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | Tags: Bells, Copper Wires, Electrical Phenomena, Fundamental Realities, Kinds Of Electricity, Manifestation, Manifestations, Movement Of Electrons, Nature Of Electricity, New Discoveries, Nucleus Of An Atom, Number Of Electrons, Positive Electricity, Rapid Movement, Things In Nature, Two Kinds, Vague Idea, Vortices, Water Flows, Whirlpools | No Comments »
October 30, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
The Structure of the Atom
There is general agreement amongst all chemists, physicists, and mathematicians upon the conclusions which we have so far given. We know that the atoms of matter are constantly—either spontaneously or under stimulation—giving off electrons, or breaking up into electrons; and they therefore contain electrons. Thus we have now complete proof of the independent existence of atoms and also of electrons.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | Tags: Central Sun, Chemists, Discards, Electron Theory, Electrons, Equilibrium, Hydrogen Gas, Hypotheses, Independent Existence, J Thomson, Man Of Science, Mathematicians, Nucleus, Orbits, Physicist, Physicists, Planets Of Our Solar System, Positive Electricity, Structure Of The Atom, Trillions | No Comments »
October 30, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
What the discovery of radium implied was only gradually realised. Radium captivated the imagination of the world; it was a boon to medicine, but to the man of science it was at first a most puzzling and most attractive phenomenon. It was felt that some great secret of nature was dimly unveiled in its wonderful manifestations, and there now concentrated upon it as gifted a body of men—conspicuous amongst them Sir J. J. Thomson, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Sir W. Ramsay, and Professor Soddy—as any age could boast, with an apparatus of research as far beyond that of any other age as the Aquitania is beyond a Roman galley. Within five years the secret was fairly mastered. Not only were all kinds of matter reduced to a common basis, but the forces of the universe were brought into a unity and understood as they had never been understood before.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | Tags: Aquitania, Atoms And Electrons, Boon, Characteristics Of Electrons, Deflection, Discovery Of The Electron, Electric Discharge, Hydrogen Gas, J Thomson, Kinds Of Matter, Magnetic Field, Man Of Science, Manifestations, Ramsay, Relative Sizes, Roman Galley, Similarity, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Soddy, Vacuum Tube | No Comments »
October 29, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
THE WORLD OF ATOMS
Most people have heard of the oriental race which puzzled over the foundations of the universe, and decided that it must be supported on the back of a giant elephant. But the elephant? They put it on the back of a monstrous tortoise, and there they let the matter end. If every animal in nature had been called upon, they would have been no nearer a foundation. Most ancient peoples, indeed, made no effort to find a foundation. The universe was a very compact little structure, mainly composed of the earth and the great canopy over the earth which they called the sky. They left it, as a whole, floating in nothing. And in this the ancients were wiser than they knew. Things do not fall down unless they are pulled down by that mysterious force which we call gravitation. The earth, it is true, is pulled by the sun, and would fall into it; but the earth escapes this fiery fate by circulating at great speed round the sun. The stars pull each other; but it has already been explained that they meet this by travelling rapidly in gigantic orbits. Yet we do, in a new sense of the word, need foundations of the universe. Our mind craves for some explanation of the matter out of which the universe is made. For this explanation we turn to modern Physics and Chemistry. Both these sciences study, under different aspects, matter and energy; and between them they have put together a conception of the fundamental nature of things which marks an epoch in the history of human thought.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | Tags: Ancient Peoples, Ancients, Asia Minor, Bricks, Canopy, Fiery Fate, Fundamental Nature, Giant Elephant, Gravitation, Greeks, Matter And Energy, Minute Particles, Modern Physics, Mysterious Force, Nature Of Matter, Nature Of Things, Orbits, Physics And Chemistry, Tortoise, Word Need | No Comments »
October 28, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
There is a long gamut between the bushy-tailed, almost squirrel-like marmosets and the big-brained chimpanzee. There is great variety of attainment at different levels in the Simian tribe.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | Tags: Alertness, Attainment, Axes, Chimpanzee, Coloured Objects, Dissection, Field Of Vision, Forest Life, Gamut, Keen Senses, Mammals, Marmosets, Monkeys, Ordination, Sensory Equipment, Shapes Of Things, Stereoscopic Vision, Two Eyes, Yes Card, Zest | No Comments »
October 28, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
In the story of evolution there is no chapter more interesting than the emergence of mind in the animal kingdom. But it is a difficult chapter to read, partly because “mind” cannot be seen or measured, only inferred from the outward behaviour of the creature, and partly because it is almost impossible to avoid reading ourselves into the much simpler animals.
Two Extremes to be Avoided
The one extreme is that of uncritical generosity which credits every animal, like Brer Rabbit—who, by the way, was the hare—with human qualities. The other extreme is that of thinking of the animal as if it were an automatic machine, in the working of which there is no place or use for mind. Both these extremes are to be avoided.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | Tags: Animal Kingdom, Basket Of Eggs, Beak, Caution, Emergence, Extremes, Gap, Generosity, Human Qualities, Inheritance, Instinct, Leap, Low Gap, Passenger Pigeon, Prominence, Rapidity, Respects, Short Time, Stile, Whitman | No Comments »
October 27, 2009 | Posted by maneerat
Nothing gives us a more convincing impression of evolution in being than a succession of pictures of the animal life of a country in different ages. Dr. James Ritchie, a naturalist of distinction, has written a masterly book, The Influence of Man on Animal Life in Scotland (1920), in which we get this succession of pictures. “Within itself,” he says, “a fauna is in a constant state of uneasy restlessness, an assemblage of creatures which in its parts ebbs and flows as one local influence or another plays upon it.” There are temporary and local changes, endless disturbances and readjustments of the “balance of nature.” One year there is a plague of field-voles, perhaps next year “grouse disease” is rife; in one place there is huge increase of starlings, in another place of rabbits; here cockchafers are in the ascendant, and there the moles are spoiling the pasture. “But while the parts fluctuate, the fauna as a whole follows a path of its own. As well as internal tides which swing to and fro about an average level, there is a drift which carries the fauna bodily along an ‘irretraceable course.’” This is partly due to considerable changes of climate, for climate calls the tune to which living creatures dance, but it is also due to new departures among the animals themselves. We need not go back to the extinct animals and lost faunas of past ages—for Britain has plenty of relics of these—which “illustrate the reality of the faunal drift,” but it may be very useful, in illustration of evolution in being, to notice what has happened in Scotland since the end of the Great Ice Age.
Categories: THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE | Tags: Alder, Animal Life, Assemblage, Balance Of Nature, Convincing Impression, Departures, Dr James, Extinct Animals, Fertile Meadows, Fishermen, Internal Tides, James Ritchie, Moles, Naturalist, Nature One, Relics, Restlessness, Snow Capped Mountains, Starlings, Swamps | No Comments »