XO. I I FREQUENCY OF VISIBLE SUN SPOTS SANFORD 5 



Similar comparisons were made with Mars and the Earth and with 

 Jupiter and the Earth and with the two planets taken together. In 

 all cases the observed effects were virtually inappreciable, being less 

 than 3 percent in every case. 



From the above data it seems safe to assert that sun spots are 

 influenced by the configurations of Venus and the Earth and probably 

 by Mercury and the Earth, and Mercury and Venus. In the case 

 of the other planets no such effect has been shown. 



In the foregoing discussion no attempt has been made to propose 

 any theory of the formation of sun spots. It has merely been shown 

 that sun spots are as if repelled by the Earth and the nearer planets. 

 Any sun-spot theory must account at least for this effective repulsion. 



In spite of the prevailing opinion of astronomers as expressed by 

 Stratton in "Astronomical Physics " that enormous electric fields in 

 and near the Sun " must be ruled out," it seems to be universally 

 agreed that the rotating gases which give rise to the powerful magnetic 

 fields of sun spots are highly electrified. 



The only known body which can repel an electrically charged body 

 is another body similarly electrified. If the planets which are known 

 to repel the charged sun spots are themselves electrified in the same 

 manner as the repelled sun spots, we have a probable explanation of 

 this repulsion. 



Whether the planets are so charged or not is a purely qualitative 

 question which cannot be answered by any mathematical theory, but 

 only in the same manner that we may determine the electrification of 

 any insulated body, namely, whether it repels or attracts a known elec- 

 trified body and whether its rotation may generate a magnetic field. 



The author has shown in his monograph on " Terrestrial Elec- 

 tricity " " that the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon have all given what 

 seems to him conclusive proofs of their negative electrification. If 

 this should be suspected in the case of the other planets, it only re- 

 mains to inquire what other phenomena which have been observed 

 between electrified bodies may be detected between the planets and the 

 electrified gases of the Sun. 



- Sanford, Fernando, Terrestrial Electricity, Stanford University Press, 1931. 



