Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/59

Rh velocity equal to that which they had before, they will carry their energy away with them into the ultramundaue regions. But if this be the case, then the corpuscules rebounding from the body in any given direction will be both in number and in velocity exactly equivalent to those which are prevented from proceeding in that direction by being deflected by the body, and it may be shown that this will be the case whatever be the shape of the body, and however many bodies may be present in the field. Thus, the rebounding corpuscules exactly make up for those which are deflected by the body, and there will be no excess of the impacts on any other body in one direction or another.

The explanation of gravitation, therefore, falls to the ground if the corpuscules are like perfectly elastic spheres, and rebound with a velocity of separation equal to that of approach. If, on the other hand, they rebound with a smaller velocity, the effect of attraction between the bodies will no doubt be produced, but then we have to find what becomes of the energy which the molecules have brought with them but have not carried away.

If any appreciable fraction of this energy is communicated to the body in the form of heat, the amount of heat so generated would in a few seconds raise it, and in like manner the whole material universe, to a white heat.

It has been suggested by Sir W. Thomson that the corpuscules may be so constructed so to carry off their energy with them, provided that part of their kinetic energy is transformed, during impact, from energy of translation to energy of rotation or vibration. For this purpose the corpuscules must be material systems, not mere points. Thomson suggests that they are vortex atoms, which are set into a state of vibration at impact, and go off with a smaller velocity of translation, but in a state of violent vibration. He has also suggested the possibility of the vortex corpuscule regaining its swiftness and losing part of its vibratory agitation by communion with its kindred corpuscules in infinite space.

We have devoted more space to this theory than it seems to deserve, because it is ingenious, and because it is the only theory of the cause of gravitation which has been so far developed as to be capable of being attacked and defended. It does not appear to us that it can account for the temperature of bodies remaining moderate while their atoms are exposed to the bombardment.

The temperature of bodies must tend to approach that at which the average kinetic energy of a molecule of the body would be equal to the average kinetic energy of an ultramundane corpuseule.

Now, suppose a plane surface to exist which stops all the corpuscules. The pressure on this plane will be p=NMu² where M is the mass of a corpuscule, N the number in unit of volume, and u its velocity normal to the plane. Now, we know that the very greatest pressure existing in the universe must be much less than the pressure p, which would be exerted against a body which stops all the corpuscules. We are also tolerably certain that N, the number of corpuscules which are at any one time within unit of volume, is small compared with the value of N for the molecules of ordinary bodies. Hence, Mu² must be enormous compared with the corresponding quantity for ordinary bodies, and it follows that the impact of the corpuscules would raise all bodies to an enormous tempera ture. We may also observe that according to this theory the habitable universe, which we are accustomed to regard as the scene of a magnificent illustration of the conservation of energy as the fundamental principle of all nature, is in reality maintained in working order only by an enormous expenditure of external power, which would be nothing less than ruinous if the supply were drawn from anywhere else than from the infinitude of space, and which, if the contrivances of the most eminent mathematicians should be found in any respect defective, might at any moment tear the whole universe atom from atom.

We must now leave these speculations about the nature of molecules and the cause of gravitation, and contemplate the material universe as made up of molecules. Every molecule, so far as we know, belongs to one of a definite number of species. The list of chemical elements may be taken as representing the known species which have been examined in the laboratories. Several of these have been discovered by means of the spectroscope, and more may yet remain to be discovered in the same way. The spectroscope has also been applied to analyse the light of the sun, the brighter stars, and some of the nebulae and comets, and has shown that the character of the light emitted by these bodies is similar in some cases to that emitted by terrestrial molecules, and in others to light from which the molecules have absorbed certain rays. In this way a considerable number of coincidences have been traced between the systems of lines belonging to particular terrestrial substances and corresponding lines in the spectra of the heavenly bodies.

The value of the evidence furnished by such coincidences may be estimated by considering the degree of accuracy with which one such coincidence may be observed. The interval between the two lines which form Fraunhofer's line D is about the five hundredth part of the interval between B and G on Kirchhoff's scale. A discordance between the positions of two lines amounting to the tenth part of this interval, that is to say, the five thousandth part of the length of the bright part of the amounting to the tenth part of this interval, that is to say, the five thousandth part of the length of the bright part of the spectrum, would be very perceptible in a spectroscope of moderate power. We may define the power of the spectroscope to be the number of times which the smallest measurable interval is contained in the length of the visible spectrum. Let us denote this by p. In the case we have supposed p will be about 5000.

If the spectrum of the sun contains n lines of a certain degree of intensity, the probability that any one line of the spectrum of a gas will coincide with one of these n lines is

$1-\left(1-\frac{1}{p}\right)=\frac{n}{p}\left(1-\frac{n-1}{2}\frac{1}{p}+... \right)$,

and when p is large compared with n, this becomes nearly n/p. If there are r lines in the spectrum of the gas, the probability that each and every one shall coincide with a line in the solar spectrum is approximately nr/pr. Hence, in the case of a gas whose spectrum contains several lines, we have to compare the results of two hypotheses. If a large amount of the gas exists in the sun, we have the strongest reason for expecting to find all the r lines in the solar spectrum. If it does not exist, the probability that r lines out of the n observed lines shall coincide with the lines of the gas is exceedingly small. If, then, we find all the r lines in their proper places in the solar spectrum, wo have very strong grounds for believing that the gas exists in the sun. The probability that the gas exists in the sun is greatly strengthened if the character of the lines as to relative intensity and breadth is found to correspond in the two spectra.

The absence of one or more lines of the gas in the solar spectrum tends of course to weaken the probability, but the amount to be deducted from the probability must depend on what we know of the variation in the relative intensity of the lines when the temperature and the pres sure of the gas are made to vary.

Coincidences observed, in the case of several terrestrial substances, with several systems of lines in the spectra of the heavenly bodies, tend to increase the evidence for the