Astronomy in a nutshell : $b The chief facts and principles explained in popular language for the general reader and for schoolsServiss, Garrett Putman
Science
Astronomy in a nutshell : $b The chief facts and principles explained in popular language for the general reader and for schools
Serviss, Garrett Putman
Astronomy -- Juvenile literature
The length of twilight at any particular
place also varies with the seasons.
It will probably have occurred to the reader that, since day and night
are ceaselessly chasing each other round the globe, it must be necessary
to choose some point of beginning, in order to keep the regular
succession of the days of the week. The necessity for this is evident as
soon as we reflect that what is sunrise at one place on the earth, is
sunset for a place situated half-way round, on the other side. To
understand this it will be better, perhaps, to consider the phenomena of
noon at various places. It is noon at any place when the sun is on the
meridian of that place. But we have seen that every place has its own
meridian; consequently, since the sun cannot be on the meridian of more
than one place at a time, each different place (reckoning east and west,
for, of course, all places lying exactly north or south of one another
have the same meridian), must have its own local noontime. Since the sun
appears to move round the earth from east to west, it will arrive at the
meridian of a place lying east of us sooner than at our meridian, and it
will arrive at our meridian sooner than at that of a place lying west of
us. Thus, when it is noon at Greenwich, it is about 7 o'clock A.M., or
five hours before noon, at New York, because the angular distance
westward round the earth's surface from Greenwich to New York is, in
round numbers, 75°, which corresponds with five hours of time, there
being 150 to every hour. At the same moment it will be 5 o'clock P.M.,
or five hours after noon, at Cashmere, because Cashmere lies 75° east of
Greenwich. That is to say, the sun crosses the meridian of Cashmere five
hours before it reaches the meridian of Greenwich, and it crosses the
meridian of Greenwich five hours before it reaches that of New York. At
a place half-way round the circumference of the globe, _i.e._ 180°
either east or west of Greenwich, it will be midnight at the same
instant when it will be mid-day, or noon, at Greenwich. Now let us
consider this for a moment.
[Illustration:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account