THE PLANET NEPTUNE. 



35 



add 3, to the third 4 add twice 3 or 6, to the next 4 add 

 twice 6 or 12, and so on, as in the following table, the 

 resulting numbers will represent nearly the relative 

 distances of the planets from the sun : 



444 

 3 6 



4 7 lO 



4 

 12 



16 



4 

 24 



28 



4, etc. 

 48, etc. 



52, etc. 



If the distance of the earth from the sun be called 10, 

 then 4 will represent nearly the distance of Mercury ; 7 

 that of Venus ; and so of the rest. This law was never 

 accurately verified in the case of any of the planets, and 

 Neptune forms a decided exception to it. This fact is 

 exhibited more clearly in the following table, which 

 shows first the true relative distance of each of the 

 planets; secondly, the distance according to Bode's law, 

 and thirdly, the error of this law : 



It will be seen from this table, that ' although this law 

 represents pretty well the distances of the nearer planets, 

 the error is quite large for Saturn and Uranus ; and for 

 Neptune the error is altogether overwhelming, amount- 

 ing to more than eight hundred millions of miles, a quan- 

 tity almost equal to the distance of Saturn from the sun. 

 It is mere mockery to dignify such coincidences with 



