Rough Ways Made Smooth: A series of familiar essays on scientific subjectsProctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
Rough Ways Made Smooth: A series of familiar essays on scientific subjects
Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
Unhappily, however, Professor Watson does not come absolutely to the
rescue here. On the contrary, to use Professor Swift's words in another
part of his letter (and speaking of another matter), 'it is just here
where the trouble begins.' If we construct a little map illustrating
what Professor Swift describes, we get the accompanying arrangement
(fig. 2). It is clearly quite impossible to reconcile this view of the
supposed new planet with Professor Watson's. If three careful estimates
showed Swift the stranger and Theta situated as in fig. 2, it is
absolutely certain that either Watson's observation was very far from
the truth, or else the strange orb he saw was not the same that Swift
saw. On the other hand, if Watson's observation was trustworthy, it is
certain that either Swift's three estimates were inexact or he saw a
different new body. Again, their accounts of the relative brightness of
Theta and the stranger could not possibly be reconciled if we supposed
they were observing the same new planet, for Watson says distinctly
that the stranger was _very much brighter_ than Theta; while Swift
says, with equal distinctness, that the two stars were _equally bright_.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Swift's new Planet?]
If we accept both observations, we must consider that the strange orb
seen by Swift was not the nearer to the sun, but the other, for Watson,
in his letter to Sir G. Airy, says that he saw both Theta and his own
new planet, and he could not have overlooked Swift's new planet, if
placed as in fig. 2, whereas if the star there marked as the stranger
were really Theta, Watson might readily enough have overlooked the
other star, as farther away from his newly-discovered planet. According
to this view, the actual arrangement at the time of the eclipse was as
shown in fig. 3.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Suggested explanation of Watson's and Swift's
observations.]
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