682 T. C. CHAMBERLIN 
Let this stage be assigned the earth in its early history to give it a 
maximum value of the agitative type of energy. It must then of 
course have extended far outside its present solid surface. The 
parabolic velocity—the velocity that carries to infinity—at the 
present surface, is 6.95 miles per second. It is obvious therefore 
that the mean velocity of the molecules of the earth-substances 
could not have been so high as this without dissipating the 
earth. The maximum mean velocity of the earth-molecules must, 
therefore, always have been appreciably lower than 7 miles per 
second. We have, therefore, as the respective mean velocities, 
something less than 7 miles per second for the vibratory energy, 
something more than 18 miles per second for the revolutional 
velocity and—neglecting the rotational velocity altogether—356 
miles per second for the potential energy. As the mass is the 
same in all cases, the energy-values are as the squares of these 
figures. Reduced and combined, the ratio of the vibratory energy 
of the earth, on the most generous allowance, cannot be more than 
1/2600 of that of the revolutional energy, even when a large factor 
isneglected. The purpose of this comparison is to show the exagger- 
ated importance that has been given to the agitative phases of 
energy, as also to the gaseous state, in the study of the earth’s 
energy-values. In this, however, we have only considered the 
megascopic motions of the earth. We have yet to consider the 
ultra-microscopic phases in which prodigious energies are even 
more unobtrusively concealed. 
To approach the ratio between the dissipative and the con- 
structive classes of energy in the earth-matter itself, let the familiar 
case of a bowlder on the surface be taken. Let it have the mean 
temperature of the earth’s surface, say 15°C. Its absolute tempera- 
ture will then be about 288 centigrade degrees. ‘This represents 
a linear extension of about .0057. All the rest of its extension 
represents the work of constructional energy—here interpreted as 
revolutional energy—except the space occupied by the atomic 
nuclei and the revolving electrical charges. While the total 
value of the energy of the revolving constituents of the atoms is 
undeterminable at present, it is certain that it is almost incompar- 
ably greater than that of the 288° C. temperature. 
