THE THEORY OF PARTIAL IMPACT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7141, 31 May 1910, Page 1

THE THEORY OF PARTIAL IMPACT

"THE THTED BODY" 1 LECTUBE BY PROFESSOR BICKERTON. "The Astronomical Importance of the Theory of the Third Body" was the title of a lecture delivered before a largely attended meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society last night. The chair was occupied by Mr, A. Hamilton, who, in introducing the lecturer, said that he courted the fullest discussion on all points of the theory which he -would develop in the course of his address. Professor Bickerton said he was going to attempt to explain the value of the theory of the third body in explaining astronomical phenomena. The main point of difference between himself andastronomers was this: It was universally agreed that the.ro were such things as dead suns, collisions of stars, and grazing collisions of stars. None of these, however, had anything to do with his theory, except as its foundation. Then came the question as to what would happen in grazing oil a part of Euns or stars. Astronomers believed that a grazing collision heated up two stars .or suns (they were really the same) to a very considerable . extent, and some very extraordinary suggestions as to what would happen could be found in many eminent books. The whole difference was that ho looked upon two suns, as it were, as celestial flint and steel, and that these two passed one another with great velocity and struck off a spark. livery time two stars in some way hit each other, lie assumed that they scarcely heated one another at all, but that they struck off the part that lay in each other's way as a huge cosmic spark, and' so formed the third body. That was tho real meaning of the theory of the third body. Ho would show -something of tho energy with which it was stored —vast energy in proportion to its mass. The third body, perhaps, had ten times more energy than other celestial objects, and so was capable of producing very extraordinary phenomena. It was this third body that astronomers had missed so absolutely and utterly that its very name could not be found in any standard astronomical literature at all. That was to say, that the idea had not settled in their minds sufficiently for them ever to speak about it. Given collisions of suns, it was impossible to a cosmic engineer to conceive that anything but a third body could be formed. He must «dmit-that'inH;ftgs¥;tfWtßoWlSV/p.assijiff one another.with energies approximating a hundred million tfrnes that of an express train, the material must be treated as infinitely soft, and that, consequently, the two bodj.es fly past one another, and the parts that actually meet destroy one another's .momentum, and turn it into heat. With blackboard and diagram he demonstrated that ,the two bodies must cut, that they will pas 9 on, and that a third bo'dy will remain. The theory, he claimed, meant that they had a cosmic system eternal and immortal, for such must grow out of a conception of the immense energy of tho third body produced by impact. APPRECIATIVE REFERENCES.

At the conclusion of his lecture a hearty vote of thanks was proposed by M,r A. C. Gifford, who remarked that the professor's theory certainly seemed to provide an explanation of otherwise niyßtifying phenomena. The Rev. Dr Kennedy seconded the motion, remarking that the professor's theory was a good working hypothesis, and one well worthy of investigation. It deserved much more attention from leading astronomers than it had received in the past. He hoped that the professor would be encouraged to go on with it, and that it would be accepted by astronomers as a working theory of great value. i

The vote of thanks was carried amid hearty applause. The chairman said that he would be very pleased if at some future meeting the society could help in the movement to bring 1 the professor's theory prominently before the astronomical world. Phey might not only pass a resolution, but could also see if they could afford any other help. A recommendation might bj made to the New Zealand Institute to help forward the matter in any way. It was only due to Professor Bickerton that they should do this. Ho had battled along for many years against adverse circumstances, and anything they could do to make the theory 'more available to scientists should be done. (An. plause.) \ x