OF CURRENT INTEREST

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1932, Page 11 (Supplement)

OF CURRENT INTEREST

SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM

(By Rev. B. Dudley, F.R.A.S.) Sunspots and the Labour Party. • It is often said that in Johann Kepler the threat 16th-17th century astronomer science and superstition were strangely blended. A . book has just been published in connection with the tercentenary commemoration of his life and work under the ■ auspices of the History of Science Society, irof. E. H Johnson, one of the joint contributor’s writes on ‘Kepler and Mysticism’; and points out -that, though the lamous astronomer discovered far-reaching laws of nature, he used to cast horoscopes, not so much, as it appears, because he really believed that the positions of the. stars have anything, to do with human destinies, as fiom financia motives. The professor also calls attention to the fact that the same book (Kepler beiim the author) which announces the third law of planetary motion contains the sentence, “The earth sings the notes ‘Mi, Fa, Mi.’ so that you may guess from them that in this abode of ours misery and famine prevail,” “mi” and “fa” being the first two letters of the words misery and famine. The music which the earth sings was a. fanciful deduction from certain relations between the plants. Other spheres, according to Kepler, sing different notes. Apparently we have not yet wholly recovered from this sort of mysticism. Occasionally the attempt is made to connect the solar movement with human affairs. In Ciel et Terre (Heaven and Earth) for September-October, 1931, we note an example of this. Captain J. Jurgensen aims at proving an alleged connection between war and .peace in Europe and the periodicity of sunspots. ■He makes out a 22-year cycle of war years, which reached a maximum in 1912-1918. I‘f he is right, then it follows that we might as well disband the League of Nations; for another maximum would on this reckoning fall due in 1934-1940. A writer in the same journal for 1929 “showed” a relation between a maximum of sun-spottedness and the nervous state of poor humans, and proved to his own satisfaction that whenever sunspots are most numerous the Liberal and Labour parties are paramount in British politics, while during periods of solar quiescence the Conservatives are the dominating factor, T. L. MacDonald, in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association, remarks with reference to this that in all probability “we shall see party leaders callirie for the. sunspot numbers (of this magazine) in order to ■ appeal to the country before the Sun goes against their party.” It looks as though old Sir Thomas Browne was not far wrong ‘when he wrote long ago that “the world which took but six days to make, is like to take 6009 years to make out.” Eclipse Expedition Tours.-— Arrangements already are well in hand, for parties to view the total eclipse of the sun on August 31, Miss K. Williams, assistant secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, being the responsible organiser of one. of these. At Magog, about 88 miles from Montreal, and not far from- the northern 'boundary of the United States, is an excellent site for observation; and this has been selected and scheduled for the purpose. Magog, on the central line of totality, is, we are informed, situated on a magnificent lake in an extended farming district. Canadians have been in the habit of using the spot as a summer camp resort; and the weather is. said to be superb. It is anticipated that, there will be a very large number of availing themselves of these arrangements, in which case the party is likely io have practically the whole of the tourist class accommodation on the ship engaged for the purpose. to themselves. Other tours are also being organised representing various interested societies throughout the world, opportunity being given to all to visit the great observatories en route. Posthumous Honours. —

To all who have taken any interest in astronomical progress in recent times Denning is an honoured name. His work in the direction of meteoric observation and study is well known and highly .meritorious. This fact has been memorialised in tablet form on his house in Egerton Road, Bristol, where he resided for the last 26 years of his life. .The inscription runs: “William Frederick Denning, F.R.A.S., • Hon. M. Sc., Bristol University, and Gold Medallist of the Royal Astronomical Society, lived here from 1905»till his death on June 9, ,1931, aged 83 years. He discovered five comets and, in 1920, a new star in Cygnus, and was specially distinguished for his lifelong devotion to the observation and study of meteors.” Mr. Denning left materials in manuscript form for a book on meteors, the publication of which is awaited with keen anticipation by all lovers of the science. Increase in Solar Rotation. —

John Evershed,' a distinguished London astronomer, publishes in the last issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society to hand a note dealing with an apparent increase in the equatorial rotation velocity of the sun. His work covers a period of several years. “These apparent variations in the rotation affect only the gases . outside the photosphere,” he states, “and they amount to a change of daily angular motion from 13.5 to 14.8 degrees. The photosphere itself is apparently not affected by movements in the reversing layer, but has always given a constant value of about 14.4 degrees from the motions of spots and faculae.” The photosphere is the visible surface of the sun. As higher levels than this are the “reversing layer,” a shallow layer of metallic gases about 500 miles in depth, aud the chromosphere, the outer layer of atmospheric gas surrounding the sun, some 5000 miles or more in depth. The reversing layer and chromosphere are' invisible; though during a total. solar eclipse the latter becomes visible, as it does also by means of a powerful spectroscopic prism. According to Evershed the movements of the reversing layer and chromosphere are greatly affected by level. Higher levels, that is to say, have larger rotation values than low-line levels, a fact which was ascertained some years ago by Adams. Evershed has now confirmed it, and thinks he has found the remarkable law that increase in rotation connects itself with increase in height. “In a Relative Way.”— A recently published limerick embodies the theory of relativity thus: — There was a young lady called Bright, Who travelled more quickly than light. She left home one day In a relative way. And came home the previous night.