Astronomy: The Science of the Heavenly BodiesTodd, David P. (David Peck)
History
Astronomy: The Science of the Heavenly Bodies
Todd, David P. (David Peck)
Astronomy
Let us next inquire into the amount of the sun's light and heat, and the
enormously high temperature of a body whose heat is so intense even at
the vast distance at which we are from it. The intensity of its
brightness is such that we have no artificial source of light that we
can readily compare it with. In the sky the next object in brightness is
the full moon, but that gives less than the half-millionth part as much
light as the sun. The standard candle used in physics gives so little
light in comparison that we have to use an enormous number to express
the quantity of light that the sun gives.
A sperm candle burning 120 grains hourly is the standard, and if we
compare this with the sun when overhead, and allow for the light
absorbed by the atmosphere, we get the number 1575 with twenty-four
ciphers following it, to express the candlepower of the sun's light. If
we interpose the intense calcium light or an electric arc light between
the eye and the sun, these artificial sources will look like black spots
on the disk. Indeed, the sun is nearly four times brighter than the
"crater," or brightest part of the electric arc. The late Professor
Langley at a steel works in Pennsylvania once compared direct sunlight
with the dazzling stream of molten metal from a Bessemer converter; but
bright as it was, sunlight was found to be five thousand times brighter.
Equally enormous is the heat of the sun. Our intensest sources of
artificial heat do not exceed 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but the
temperature at the sun's surface is probably not less than 16,000
degrees F. One square meter of his surface radiates enough heat to
generate 100,000 horsepower continuously. At our vast distance of 93
millions of miles, the sun's heat received by the earth is still
powerful enough to melt annually a layer of ice on the earth more than a
hundred feet in thickness. If the solar heat that strikes the deck of a
tropical steamship could be fully utilized in propelling it, the speed
would reach at least ten knots.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account