132 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



surface. The larger body, having four times the surface of the smaller, 

 will then emit four times as much light. The volumes being propor- 

 tional to the cubes of their diameters, it will have eight times its vol- 

 ume. The densities being supposed equal, it will have eight times the 

 mass. Suppose that each has a satellite revolving around it, and that 

 the orbit of the satellite of the larger body is twice the radius of that of 

 the smaller one. 



Calling the radius of the nearer satellite 1, that of the more distant 

 one will be 2. The cube of this number is 8. It follows from the exten- 

 sion of Kepler's third law, which we have cited, that the times of revo- 

 lution of the two satellites will be the same. Thus the two bodies, 

 A and B, with their satellites, C and C, form two binary systems whose 

 proportions and whose periods are the same, only the linear dimensions 

 of B are all double those of A. In other words, we shall have a pair of 

 binary systems which may look alike in every respect, but of which one 

 will have double the dimensions and eight times the mass of the other. 



Now let us suppose the larger system to be placed at twice the 

 distance of the smaller. The two will then appear of the same size, and, 

 if stars, will appear of the same brightness, while the two orbits will 

 have the same apparent dimensions. In a word, the two systems will 

 appear alike when examined with the telescope, and the periodic times 

 will be equal. 



Near the end of the second chapter we have given a little table 

 showing the magnitude that the Sun would appear to us to have were 

 it placed at different distances among the stars. The parallaxes we 

 have there given are simply the apparent angle which would have to be 

 subtended by the radius of the earth's orbit at different distances. It 

 follows that, were the stars all of similar constitution to the Sun, the 

 numbers given in the last column of the table referred to would, in all 

 cases, express the apparent distance from the star of a companion, 

 having a time of revolution of one year. From this we may easily 

 show what would be the time of revolution of any binary system of 

 which the companions were separated by 1", if the stars were of the 

 same constitution as the Sun. 



Periods of binary systems whose components are separated by 1" 

 and whose constitution is the same as that of the Sun. 



Period. Annual 



Mag. y. Motion. 



1 1.8 200° 



2 3.5 102 



3 7.0 51 



4 14.1 25 



5 28.1 13 



6 56.0 6 



7 112. 3.2 



8 223. 1.6 



