anaxagoras orbit

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Anaxagoras

Science started in the shadow of prison bars. Anaxagoras, who was born on the western shore of

Asia Minor about the year 500 before the present era, taught the moon has a light which is notits own, but comes from the sun. rom this it followed! "he sun is eclipsed at the new moon

through the interposition of the moon. #$%

&e was the first to set out distinctly the facts about the eclipses and illuminations, wrote

&ippolytus, a father of the 'hurch, in hisRefutation of All Heresies.

(n the first century of the present era )lutarch ga*e this account!

Anaxagoras was the first to put in writing, most clearly and most courageously of all men, the

explanation of the moon+s illumination and darness. . . . &is account was not common property,

but was -still a secret, current among only a few . . . or in those days they refused to toleratethe physicists and starga/ers, as they were called, who presumed to fritter away the deity into

unreasoning causes, blind forces, and necessary properties. "hus )rotagoras was exiled, and

Anaxagoras was imprisoned and with difficulty sa*ed by )ericles.#%

Anaxagoras was accused of impiety and sentenced for holding that the sun is a red1hot stone andthe moon is of earthy nature. "his was in disagreement with the *iew that these luminaries were

deities. &e taught! "he sun, the moon, and all the stars are stones of fire, which are carried

round by the re*olution of the aether.#2%

Anaxagoras was put in prison and was mared for death, but )ericles barely succeeded to release

him from the death house and set him free.

#3%

According to another account he was fined thehea*y fine of fi*e talents of sil*er and banished. #5%)ossibly, the fine and expatriation were

imposed upon him in lieu of capital punishment, by )ericles+ endea*or.

According to "heophrastus, Anaxagoras held that the moon was sometimes eclipsed by theinterposition of other bodies #besides the earth% tra*eling below the moon. #4%Modern science does

not now of such occultations of the moon and therefore denies such an explanation. nly large

swarms of meteorites or comets, if interspersed between the earth and the moon, could cause thephenomenon.

Anaxagoras taught also that the terrestrial axis changed its direction in the past.#6%7ut if to gi*e

credence to &ippolytus, he thought that the earth is flat in form.

#8%

&owe*er, he belie*ed thatthere are many earths lie ours. According to a fragment of his,

Men were formed and other animals which ha*e life9 the men too ha*e inhabited cities and

culti*ated fields as we do9 they ha*e also a sun and a moon and the rest #of the stars% as we ha*e,

and their earth produces for them many things of *arious inds.#:%
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(n this there was already an initial departure from the belief in the uni;ueness of the earth and its

central position in the uni*erse.

References

$. &ippolytus,Refutatio Omnium Haeresium, (. 8. 4.

. )lutarch,De Placitis Philosophorum, Anaxagoras.

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Aristarchus+ boo on the planetary system with the Sun in the center did not sur*i*e, and we

now of it only through references to its content, chiefly by Archimedes. Archimedes, who was

twenty1fi*e years his unior, wrote! Aristarchus brought out a boo consisting of certain

hypotheses. . . . &is hypotheses are that the fixed stars and the Sun remain unmo*ed, and that the

?arth re*ol*es about the Sun in the circumference of a circle, the Sun lying in the middle of the

orbit. &e also added that according to Aristarchus who is in contradiction to the common

account of astronomers, the uni*erse is many times larger than generally assumed by

astronomers, and the fixed stars are at an enormous distance from the Sun and its planets.#$%

Aristarchus regarded the Sun as one of the fixed stars, the closest to the ?arth. Aristarchus sets

the Sun among the fixed stars and holds that the ?arth mo*es round the sun+s circle #i.e.,

ecliptic% referred another author, centuries later.#%

As Archimedes said, the *iew of Aristarchus conflicted with the common teaching of the

astronomers, and he also ;uoted it only to put it aside disappro*ingly. ne of the contemporaries

of Aristarchus, 'leanthes, wrote a treatise Against Aristarchus.

#2%

Bhate*er his scientificargument may ha*e been, he accused Aristarchus of an act of impiety. )lutarch wrote in his boo

Of the "ace in the Disc of the %oon&De facie in ore lunae'that 'leanthes thought it was the

duty of the >rees to indict Aristarchus of Samos on the charge of impiety for putting in motion

the &earth of the Cni*erse, this being the effect of his attempt to sa*e the phenomena by

supposing hea*en to remain at rest and the ?arth to re*ol*e in an obli;ue circle, while it rotates,

at the same time, about its own axis.#3%

Be do not now whether there was any actual court action and *erdict9 howe*er, we now that a

*erdict of udges, e*en if unanimous, could not mae the Sun a satellite of the ?arth. Dot e*en a

scientific tribunal can do this, not e*en if it is presided o*er by Archimedes and the mostillustrious men of the generation sit as udges.

"he spoesman of the scholarly world was ods, according to )lato, to remain fixed, and the planets

with the whole embracing hea*en to mo*e and reect the *iew of those who brought to rest the

things which mo*e and set in motion the things which by their nature and position are unmo*ed,

such a supposition being contrary to the theories of mathematicians.#5%

Aristarchus had no followers in his generation, nor in the next generation. About a century after

Aristarchus, Seleucus, a 'haldean of Seleucia on the "igris, who li*ed and wrote about the year$50 before the present era, adopted the teaching of Aristarchus.

&ipparchus was a contemporary of Seleucus. &ipparchus is thought to be the greatest astronomer

of anti;uity, and e*en today there are worshippers of his among the menbers of the faculties. 7ut

he reected the heliocentric system of Aristarchus, and this he did not on a religious ground, but

on a scientific one. A system with the Sun in the center of circular orbits could not account for
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the peculiarities in the *isible motions of the planets, but the theory of epicycles could, and this

theory had the ?arth immobile in the center of the uni*erse.

"hus the religious dogma and the mathematical analysis, both, condemned Aristarchus and his

teaching that the ?arth circles around the Sun.

References

$. Archimedes, ed. &eiberg, *ol. ((, p. 33 &Arenarius(. 316%9 (he )or$s of Archime!es,ed.

&eath, pp. $1. See &eath,Aristarchus of *amos,#xford Cni*ersity )ress, $:$2% p.

20.

. Aetius #ii.3.8%Dox. +raec.p. 255.$: 7eer. See &eath,Aristarchus of *amos,p. 205.

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=ater >ree philosophers regarded )lato as influenced by Mosaic teaching. )lato deri*ed his

idea of >od from the )entateuch. )lato is Moses translated into the language of the Athenians,

wrote Dumenius and was ;uoted by ?usebius.#%

(f one considers )lato+s monotheism, his concept of an in*isible and supreme spiritual 7eing, so

different from the pre*alent polytheism of other >ree philosophers and so remote from the

pantheon of &omer and its scandalous lympians with their permanent strife and marital and

extra1marital affairs with mortal women, one is inclined to thin that )lato, at the time of his

tra*el to ?gypt thirty years old, happened to sit at the feet of ?/ra. A late >ree tradition has it

that Aristotle on his tra*el to the lands of the eastern Mediterranean met a *ery wise Few from

whom he learned much wisdom.#2%&owe*er, it is not nown whether Aristotle e*er went to

)alestine and ?gypt. 7esides, in Aristotle, a pupil of )lato, one feels a return to a polytheistic

astral religion. 'ould it be that the indebtedness of >ree thought in the days of )lato to the

Semitic idea of one and single in*isible 'reator stemmed from ?/ra@ Be also don+t now of any

wise and nowledgeable man approximating ?/ra+s stature in the next few generations. All thisbelongs to the realm of the possible but unpro*en, and the probable presence of ?/ra in

Ferusalem after 12:8 #in the days of Artaxerxes ((% is of interest for this intriguing problem.#3%

References

$. )lato, (imaeus -D, / A, D.

. ?usebius,Preparation for the +ospel #transl. >ifford%, G(((, $.

2. 'learchus of Soli, ;uoted in "heodore Heinach, (extes !0auteurs grecs et romains relatifs

au 1u!aisme#)aris, $8:5%, pp. $01$$.

3. SeePeoples of the *ea, ?/ra.

Cicero and Seneca

'icero in the last century before the present era, the statesman and philosopher of republicanHome, declared the stars to be gods. "he di*inity of the planets he explained by their occupying

the sublime positions and by their following unerringly their paths.

Since the stars come into existence in the aether, it is reasonable that they possess sensation andintelligence. And from this it follows that the stars are to be reconed as gods. or it may be

obser*ed that the inhabitants of those countries in which the air is pure and rarefied ha*e eener

wits and greater powers of understanding than persons who li*e an a dense and hea*y

climate. . . . (t is therefore liely that the stars possess surpassing intelligence, since they inhabitthe ethereal region of the world.
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Again, the consciousness and intelligence of the stars is most clearly e*inced by their order and

regularity . . . the stars mo*e of their own free will and because of their intelligence and

di*inity. . . . Dot yet can it be said that some stronger force compels the hea*enly bodies to tra*elin a manner contrary to their nature, for what stronger force can there be@ (t remains therefore

that the motion of the hea*enly bodies is *oluntary. . .

"herefore the existence of the gods is so manifest that ( can scarcely deem one who denies it to

be of sound mind.

"his dogmatic thining, changing the statute of faith but not the mode of thining, existed in all

ages! in the Home of 'icero and 'aesar, in the Home of the 'atholic 'hurch, in modern

obser*atories. "he categorical manner in which the dissidents are castigated as being of unsoundand *icious mind can be seen again in the burning of >iordano 7runo, in the compelling of

>alileo to recant on his nees, in the coercing of the publisher of )orl!s in -ollision to gi*e up

the publication.

"he notion expressed by 'icero that planets are di*ine bodies endowed with di*ine intelligencewas deduced not fron the fact of their occupying the ethereal heights and mo*ing unerringlyE

these attributes were only called upon to pro*e the existing idea of planets and stars being gods.

And the source of this belief, deep1rooted and widespread, was in natural phenomena and

extraordinary e*ents of the past that grew dimmer with e*ery passing generation.

)liny, the Homan naturalist of the first century, new to tell of interplanetary discharges!

&ea*enly fire is spit forth by the planet as cracling charcoal flies from a burning log.

(nterplanetary thunderbolts, according to him, ha*e been caused in the past by each of the threeupper planetsEMars, Mercury and Saturn.

Seneca, the contemporary of )liny, mentor of Dero and philosopher, was no mathematician andno astronomer9 howe*er, he rose to a clearer concept of comets as members of the planetary

system. "he pre*ailing *iew was that of Aristotle, according to whom the comets are exhalationsof the earth in sublunar space, something of the nature of rainbows. Seneca regards them as

bodies ain to planets, yet not planets, on *ery elongated orbits, and he nows that the 'haldeans

ha*e determined their orbits! Apollonius of Myndus asserts that comets are placed by the

'haldeans among the number of the wandering stars #i.e., planets% and that their orbits ha*e beendetermined. #$%&e nows that comets are seen only when they come close to the sun, or when

they reach the lowest portion of their course. &e opposes the *iew that the comets are

unsubstantial bodies9 the argument is brought forward that the sight can penetrate through cometsand see the stars behind9 Seneca answers that this is the case with the tails of the comets, not with

their heads, through which one cannot see. &e nows the *iew expounded by Artemidorus that

the fi*e planets are not the only stars with erratic courses, but merely the only ones of the classthat ha*e been obser*ed. 7ut innumerable others re*ol*e in secret, unnown to us, either by the

faintness of their light, or the situation of their orbit being such that they become *isible only

while they reach its extremities.

"he day will yet come, wrote Seneca in his treatiseDe -ometis,
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when the progress of research through long ages will re*eal to sight the mysteries of nature that

are now concealed. A single lifetime, though it were wholly de*oted to the study of the sy, does

not suffice for the in*estigation of problems of such complexity. And then we ne*er mae a fairdi*ision of the few brief years of life as between study and *ice. (t must, therefore, re;uire long

successi*e ages to unfold all. "he day will yet come when posterity will be ama/ed that we

remained ignorant of things that will to them seem so plain. "he fi*e planets are constantlythrusting themsel*es on our notice9 they meet us in all the different ;uarters of the sy with a

positi*e challenge to our curiosity.

"he man will come one day who will explain in what regions the comets mo*e, why they di*erge

so much from the other stars, what is their si/e and their nature.

Many disco*eries are reser*ed for the ages still to be when our memory shall ha*e perished. "he

world is a poor affair if it does not contain matter for in*estigation for the whole world in e*ery

age . . . Dature does not re*eal all her secrets at once. Be imagine we are initiated in her

mysteries. Be are, as yet, but hanging around her outer courts.

Seneca was compelled to tae his own life when accused of plotting against Dero, his pupil. &e

was born in the same year as Fesus of Da/areth. (n less than three hundred years Home was to

become the citadel of the new religion. "hree forces ept science from progressing and brought

about the dar ages! the in*asion of the hordes coming from the east and north9 the influence ofthe 'hurch that imposed dogmas and made the human spirit unfree9 and the scientific dogma that

petrified itself in a thousand1year1long worship of AristotleEthrough all the years of the Middle

Ages, with their crusades, scholasticism, and 7lac


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computations of the ?arth+s gra*itational pull did not agree with obser*ations. And, it is said,

when the rench sa*ant, F. )icard upon measuring the meridian in =apland, came to the correct

result, that Dewton became confident of his formula for inertia and gra*itation. #$%

=ifeEclaims #&ooe, lamsteed, =eibnit/%. =ight corp.9 space empty9 how does gra*itation act@

nature of gra*itation9 law of simplicity.

Bhen explaining his theory of celestial mechanics, Dewton used the following example. A

proectileEa stoneEis thrown hori/ontally from the top of a high mountain9 because of its

weight it is

forced out of the rectilinear path, which by the initial proection alone it should ha*e pursued,

and made to describe a cur*ed line in the air9 and through that crooed way is at last brought

down to the ground9 and the greater the *elocity is with which it is proected, the farther it goes

before it falls to the earth. Be may therefore suppose the *elocity to be increased, that it would

describe an arc of $, , 5, $0, $00, $000 miles before it arri*ed at the earth till at last, exceeding

the limits of the earth, it should pass into space without touching it.#%

At a *ery definite cur*e, the result of a *ery precise and definite *elocity of proection, the stone

would follow the circumference of the earth and return to the mountain from which it was

proected without falling to the ground or flying off into space.

or the sae of this example, let us suppose that there is no air about the earth or at least that it

is endowed with little or no power of resisting, and that only the weight of the proectile causes

it to bend its path.

ne can obser*e that these two figures differ by se*en percent, and that therefore complete

correspondence is an exaggeration. "here are other, much more close correspondences in*ol*ing

our moon, and they still belong in the domain of coincidences. "he moon, for instance, is placed

so on its orbit that it appears nearly the same si/e as the sun, and actually, during the full

eclipses, the moon chances so to co*er the sun that only the solar corona is seen o*er the dar

/one of the moon. Also the already mentioned fact that the moon+s mean distance is *ery nearly

e;ual to sixty terrestrial semi1diameters, the number of seconds in a minute9 or the fact that light

tra*els $84,000 miles in a second, and the diameter off.

At the age of fifty, when the biological process of in*olution generally sets in in man, Dewton

became ill and depressed. "he excessi*e exploitation of his brain, his unrelenting search for

answers to nature+s unsol*ed problems undermined and disturbed the mental balance of the

genius. Bhen Dewton was forty1fi*e years old, hisPrincipiawas published. "hen he wored on

optics. "he story goes that he left his manuscript on the table close to a burning candle and went

out of the room to loo at a procession9 a pet o*erturned the candle and the manuscript burned.
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"his misfortune started his depression. (t is ;uestionable whether this is a true story. (n a young

man mental depression usually sets in when the person faces a big tas and is afraid to fail9 in the

second half of life, the person becomes depressed mostly as the result of slighting and

humiliation. (t would be wrong to thin that a person who is great is protected by his greatness

from the feeling of slighting and humiliation. Dewton+s experiences with &ooe, with =eibnit/,

and with lamsteed could ha*e been the real cause.

?dlestone, -orrespon!ence, p. L4III.

7rewster,Life of 3e5ton,((, $3.


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persecution to which >alileo had been subected in Home. Dot desirous of coming into conflict

with the 'atholic 'hurch, alileo affair.


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'artesian philosophy finds many followers until today. 7ut his scheme of things celestial has

long been regarded as discredited! this teaching pre*ailed on the continent in his lifetime and still

in the lifetime of Dewton, but not much longer.

Laplace

n ebruary $0, $662, )ierre Simon =aplace, a twenty1three years old scientist, read before the

Academy of Sciences in )aris a paper in which, on the basis of the Dewtonian theory of

gra*itation, he announced the in*ariability of planetary mean motions. "his was the first step in

the establishment of the stability of the solar system, says the8nc6clopae!ia 9ritannica #$3th

ed.%. A mathematical genius, =aplace showed in a mathematical analysis that the planets must

proceed on their paths to the end of time and that, accordingly, they ha*e been on their present

orbits since the *ery beginning. (n a series of papers =aplace and =agrange, another

mathematical genius whose ideas went in the same direction, *ied in a complete substantiation of

this thesis of in*ariability of the planetary mean motions. Do planet could e*er ha*e oined the

family of the planets9 no planet has e*er changed its orbit. (t was a wor of stability in the

cosmos carried through to the *ery e*e of the rench He*olution. (n $6:4, in a note to the

8xposition !u s6steme !u mon!e, =aplace offered his idea of the origin of the solar system. it was

a large nebula, it rotated, and because of the gra*itation of the mass to its center, a sun formed

itself in the middle, and condensed. "he outer parts of the nebula broe into rings, and the rings

rolled themsel*es into globesEthe planets. &e insisted that there could be no accident in the fact

that the sun, all nown planets, all nown satellites, roll in the same direction, counterclocwise.

And, being a master of the theory of probabilities, he concluded that there are four billion

chances against one that this plan is not the result of chance. ?*en the best nown historical

e*ents ha*e not been authenticated at the same ratio of four billion against one. 7y today we

nown that =aplace was wrong! with the disco*ery of the first retrograde satelliteEand today

more than ten retrograde satellites are nown. "he rotation of Kenus is also retrograde, as is that

of Cranus, disco*ered in $68$. "he four billion against one odds became /ero against one! there

may still be a common plan in the arrangement, but this plan was no more e*ident.

De*ertheless, the estimate of the twenty1three year old =aplace that the planetary orbits are

eternal became the pricipal statute of faith, or the supreme dogma of the astronomers of the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries. n it is based the astronomy of today.

According to =aplace, gra*itation, in order to eep this system together, must propagate with a*elocity that, compared to the *elocity of light, is at least fifty million times greater. And since

light propagates with the *elocity of 200,000 ilometers in a second #$84,000 miles%, the *elocity

with which gra*itation must propagate in order that the solar system should not fall apart must be

infinite, or instantaneous. "his last postulate of =aplace was sometimes silently dropped out of

his theory9 and the permanency of the celestial orbits remained, and ser*ed as alpha and omega

of all subse;uent thining.


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Voltaire

rancois Marie Arouet de Koltaire #$4:31$668%, wit, liberal, and freethiner, at the age of thirty1

one was insulted by 'he*alier de Hohan and answered with a biting sarcasm. A little time later,

when dining at the table of the ermany, and in the

rest of ?urope was responsible for the early acceptance of the Dewtonian system and the

reection of the 'artesian. Although himself no mathematician, Koltaire set himself up as the

supreme udge and decided in fa*or of Dewton and against his compatriot. &e actually stopped

the debate. &is influence was also responsible, more than anything else, for maing the deeply

'atholic rance into a nation of freethiners, thus pa*ing the road to the rench He*olution of$68:, that too place ele*en years after his death.

Nicolas Boulanger

"he name Dicolas 7oulanger is not found in most encyclopedias and is nown only to a few

scholars. &e was a contemporary of Fean1Fac;ues Housseau, Koltaire, and


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(n 7oulanger+s time geology as a science was in a prenatal stage. 7ut as a road engineer he made

obser*ations in the *alley of the Marne that made him draw conclusions which he substantiated

in reading the then existing boos of follore and sacred writings9 also classical writers were

a*ailable to 7oulanger, either in originals or in translation. &e was con*inced that the


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. L0anti;uit: !evoil:e par ses usages, ou examen criti;ue !es principales opinions

c:r:monies et institutions religieuses et politi;ues Des !iff:rens peuples !e la terre

#Amsterdam, $644%.

2. Fohn &ampton93icolasAntoine 9oulanger et la science !e son temps#>ene*a1=ille,

$:55%.

Adams

"he greatest triumph of the celestial mechanics built on gra*itation and inertia to the exclusion of

any other forces too place in $834 when Deptune was disco*ered in the place in the sy

calculated by Adams and =e*errier independently of each other9 they indicated the direction

where the planet would be found with the exactness of one degree9 they calculated its position by

considering the unaccounted for perturbations of Cranus. "he story of its disco*ery is an exciting

chapter in the history of astronomy! how the poor student Adams stood in the antechambers of

the Hoyal Astronomer Airy and was sent away by the *alet because Sir Airy was at the table, andhow he tried to con*ince the powerful astronomer of the existence of an eighth planet by sending

in his calculations9 and how the renchman =e*errier was much more fortunate by ha*ing

performed *ery similar calculations and by ha*ing sent them to the obser*atory at )otsdam

where the young astronomer >ale, the *ery first night at the *ery first loo at the indicated

direction found the new planet. "he excited scientific community in ?urope was soon plunged

into the debate who of the two was the true disco*erer, or better prognosticator, since >ale was

the disco*erer of the planet9 the passions were di*ided by the national line, with the rench and

7ritish ri*alries inflamed, and the Hoyal Astronomer had to defend his beha*ior9 there exists

;uite a literature on the subect. "he rench insisted on their priority and e*en named the new

planet =e*errier, and it too some time before its new name Deptune pre*ailed. "ill today the

case is debated and the pride of 7ritannia, in any e*ent depri*ed of priority, of the greatest

disco*eries, is still not completely healed.

"he disco*ery was hailed by the 7ritish and the renchEand by e*eryoneEas the greatest

triumph of the Dewtonian theory of gra*itation. Cranus showed certain irregularities in its

motion unaccounted for by the gra*itational pull of the nown planets, and the existence and the

position of a planet not yet seen was claimed by Adams and =e*errier alie. "his was possibly

the best prognostication in the annals of science. 7ut was it really so precise and was it such a

triumph for Dewton as always asserted@

"he so1called 7ode+s =aw is the empirically established regularity, co*ered by a simple formula,

in the mean distances of the planets from the sun. "his regularity can be traced through the

planetary system from Mercury to Cranus #the one *acant place, between the orbits of Mars and

Fupiter, was filled in, when in the first night of the nineteenth century 'eres, the first of the many

asteroids was disco*ered by )ia//i Smyth%. Adams and =e*errier alie assumed that the planet


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which causes unaccounted perturbations in Cranus must be located at a distance dictated by

7ode+s =aw. And since Saturn, the sixth planet, is smaller than Fupiter, the fifth, and Cranus, the

se*enth, is smaller than Saturn, it would be ;uite logical to expect a planet smaller than Cranus

at a distance of $,650,000,000 miles from its orbit. 7ut next the calculations showed that the

distance of the two planets when in conunction is not $,650,000,000 miles but only roughly

$,000,000,0009 and with the gra*itational attraction decreasing with the distance as the in*erse

s;uare of the latter, the mass of the newly disco*ered planet was grossly o*erestimated! it was

supposed to exert the influence from a much greater distance than one actually found. (t was not

enough to show the direction where the planet would be found9 it was necessary, in order that the

prediction should be true, that the planet would be at the distance predicted, and it was not with

Adams, nor with =e*errier, both of whom committed the same error. "herefore, when the great

contro*ersy raged between the supporters of Adams and those of =e*errier, some *oices were

heard that neither of them was a true prognosticator and there was no point in the ri*alry. "o

mae a distance error of 65 percent was e;ual to a threefold o*erestimate of the mass of the

planet. (n order to produce the effects from its true distance Deptune needed to be three times asmassi*e as it actually is. 7ode+s =aw broe down with the disco*ery of Deptune. And though

Deptune is a little more massi*e than Cranus, the discrepancy between what was expected and

what was found in no manner can be regarded as a rigid confirmation of the Dewtonian celestial

mechanics with an exact formula of attraction between masses at changing distances. "he story is

not yet at its end, and we need to tell of the disco*ery of )luto, the ninth planet, which should

ha*e explained what Deptune left unexplained, but failed to do so, either, and by a still larger

margin.

Let in $834 the disco*ery of Deptune was acclaimed, and because of the inertia of the human

mind, is still acclaimed as the greatest proof of the truth of Dewtonian celestial laws ofgra*itational mechanics.

Nicola Tesla

(n the beginning of this century a 'roatianengineer, emigrant to America, Diola "esla,measured the electrical charge of the planet ?arth and found it of a *ery high potential. &e made

his obser*ation during thunder storms.

My instruments were affected stronger by discharges taing place at great distances than by

those near by. "his pu//led me *ery much. . . . Do doubt whate*er remained! ( was obser*ingstationary wa*es. As the source of the disturbances -thuderstorm mo*ed away, the recei*ing

circuit came successi*ely upon their nodes and loops. (mpossible as it seemed, this planet,

despite its *ast extent, beha*ed lie a conductor of limited dimensions. "he tremendoussignificance of this fact in the transmission of energy by my system had already become ;uite

clear to me. Dot only was it practicable to send telegraphic messages to any distance without

wires, as ( recogni/ed long ago, but also to impress upon the entire globe the faint modulations


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of the human *oice, far more still, to transmit power, in unlimited amounts, to any terrestrial

distance and almost without loss.#$%

Diola "esla was a pioneer in many fields of electrical theory and technology. &e was the first toutili/e alternating current, concei*ing an effecti*e system for its generation, transmission, and

utili/ation. ?dison appealed to the public, warning that the alterating current of "esla wouldcause great harm to its users, being dangerous, and that only direct current can be harmlessly

used. "esla referred to ?dison as an in*entor, to himself as a disco*erer. "oday e*eryone nowsthat alternating current, with the help of the polyphase induction motor, can be con*erted into

mechanical energy more effecti*ely and economically than direct current. &e in*ented new

forms of dynamos, transformers, condensers, and induction coils. &e disco*ered the principle ofthe rotary magnetic field, upon which the transmission of power from the Diagara alls and other

waterfalls and dams is carried on. A regal recluse, he despised the short1seeing men of science.

Many of his pioneer in*entions he carried with him to his gra*e. 7ut he belie*ed in the destiny ofman who, in his words, searches, disco*ers and in*ents, designs and constructs, and co*ers with

monuments of beauty, grandeur and awe, the star of his birth.

"his teaches us that not only ha*e the contempories of a re*olutionary idea in science repeatedly

reected the idea, but also that a reection of such an idea e*en by the best ;ualified men in thefield in the generation of the re*olutionary, and often still in the following generations, has

occurred not once or twice, but many times. Archimedes reected the heliocentric system of

Aristarchus9 7rahe reected the system of 'opernicus9 and >alileo was deaf and blind to thedisco*eries of Iepler, ust as ?dison warned against the alternating current de*eloped by "esla.

And who was more competent to udge than Archimedes, in his time, 7rahe in his, >alileo in his,

and ?dison in his@

References

$. 8lectrical )orl! an! 8ngineerMay 5, l:039 see also -entur6,Fune $:00. Juoted from F.

F. +Deill, (he Pro!igal +enius< Life of 3i$ola (esla,$:33, p. $8$.

-"esla was in fact a Serb who was born in the 'roatian *illage of Smilane in the =ia region,

which at the time was part of Austrian monarchy. &is father was an orthodox priest.E ?ds.

Einstein

?instein was born in $86:, the year Maxwell died. (t was the year when Michelson made the first

in the series of his experiments in in*estigating the *elocity of light. ?instein was born in Clm,

the town in which Iepler, his fa*orite scientist of earlier times, had spent some of the last

months of his life, before dying in $420. (n high school the geography teach declared ?instein to

be moronic9 in the Nurich )olytechnic his physics professor, as ?instein told me, once said to

him! (n this college the poorest class is of experimental physics, and the poorest pupil are you.

Cpon graduation he was unable to secure a teaching position and, after years of pri*ate tutoring
http://www.varchive.org/ce/orbit/tesla.htm#f_1http://www.varchive.org/ce/orbit/tesla.htm#f_1


17/18

of students deficient in mathematics, he was happy to recei*e the position of a patent examiner in

the 7ern )atent ffice. "here he profited in learning to express himself in short and exact terms.

At the age of twenty1six, in $:05, he offered the theory of relati*ity, later called the special or

restricted theory of relati*ity, in distinction from the theory he offered eight years later, the

general theory of relati*ity.

Should ( try to put into one single sentence the gist of the theory in $:05, ( would do it thus!

Space and time, regarded as absolute and un*ariable entities #hour is always an hour, a meter is

e*erywhere a meter%, were declared to be relati*e, or changing, entities9 the speed of light in a

*acuum, thought to be a relati*e ;uantity #depending on the relati*e motion of the light source

and the obser*er% was declared to be an absolute, un*arying entity.

A second is no longer a second for all obser*ers. A second of time is of different duration for

obser*es in motion and at rest9 but $84,000 miles per second, whate*er miles or whate*er

seconds, was always true.

A mile1long spaceship tra*els and o*ertaes our earth. A light signal is sent in the *ery middle of

the spaceship9 for the tra*eler in the spaceship the light will arri*e simultaneously at both of its

ends9 for the obser*er on earth #assuming he could obser*e such small differences% the light will

come first to the rudder that tra*els toward the light and then to the bow that tra*els away from

the light. "hus the *ery notion of simulataneity was emptied of real content.

"he theory of it/gerald made the matter shorter when crossing through ether and thus mased

the change in *elocity of light9 ?instein, howe*er, made the *elocity of light in a *acuum an

immutable ;uantity, or a constant for all obser*ers in whate*er relati*e motion to the source of

light they might be.

"his is a sentence that can be expressed mathematically9 but it is not easy to *isuali/e it by

reason. A light lea*es its source and whate*er obect it meets in motion, toward or away from the

source of light, the relati*e *elocity of light and the obect is always $84,000 miles per second.

"hus a ray of light speeds from the place of explosion in 'o*entry with the *elocity of $84,000

miles per second to 7irmingham and with the same *elocity in the opposite direction toward

Hugby9 but the two photons of light speeding in opposite directions ha*e a relati*e speed of$84,000 miles per second, not of 2:,000 miles per second! nothing can be swifter than $84,000

miles per second, the *elocity of light.

(n those early years of ?instein+s career, he spent often his time in discussions with another

mathematical genius, B. Hit/. "he latter could not see that the *elocity of the source would not

add itself to the *elocity of light! in mechanics, a stone thrown by a passenger in a train ac;uires


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not only the *elocity of throw but also the *elocity of the train that carries the passenger. Hit/

printed a paper to oppose the notion of ?instein.

anaxagoras orbit

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