Second. Let us condense this same nebula to 773·395 times less dense
than water, and consequently to the density of air at atmospheric
pressure, then its diameter will be 8,930,309 miles, volume
372,905,560,345^9 cubic miles, and the mean heat 0°, or the heat of
freezing water--which by some unexplained process of thought has
hitherto been considered to be 274° of absolute _temperature_.
Third. By again condensing the Solar nebula to the density of water,
corresponding to a pressure of more than 773 atmospheres, its diameter
becomes 972,285 miles, its volume 482,167^{12} cubic miles, and mean
heat 775°, including the 2° acquired in condensing it to the pressure
of 1 atmosphere, as is plainly shown in Table III.
Before going any further we must enter into a digression to examine
into the process of thought by which the absolute zero of heat has
come to be called the absolute zero of temperature, and absolute
temperature to be so many degrees of negative--less than 0° or
nothing--heat counted from the lower or wrong end, to be called
positive absolute temperature; thus making heat and temperature appear
to be two very different things, without giving any explanation of what
is the difference between them.
Science has, as it were, gone down a stair of 274 steps carrying along
with it the laws of gases, and has found, most legitimately, with their
assistance the total absence of even negative heat at the bottom of it;
and, leaving these laws there, has jumped up to the top of the stair,
thinking that it carried along with it 274° of absolute heat, which it
now calls temperature; instead of bringing the said laws up with it
and verifying, if not at every step at least at intervals, how much it
brought up with it of what it had taken down. Had it done so it would
have found that at the top of the stair it had got what was equal to
only 2° of positive heat as measured by the Centigrade scale, as has
been shown above, which might be called temperature, but that would
not mend matters. Science seems to have forgotten, for the time being
at least, all about the laws of gases; it had got something which it
thought would enable it to mount much higher, and was satisfied. It
will not be difficult to do away with the confusion of thought that is
thus shown to have occurred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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