iseo.] iUd [Cliaso. 



COSMICAL RELATIONS OF LIGHT TO GRAVITY. 

 By Pliny Earle Chase. 



Prof. Kirkwood's very interesting presentation of the evidence wliicli 

 indicates special lines of disturbance on the Sun's surface, furnishes a new 

 analogy to guide the researches of investigators. The well known de- 

 pendence of one class of magnetic fluctuations on the position of ocean 

 meridians, strengthens his hypothesis of similar meridians beneath the 

 solar photosphere* which may possibly be detected by spectroscopic ob- 

 servations, while the coincidence of luminous, magnetic, and gravitating 

 lines encourages renewed efforts to trace out the fundamental harmonies 

 of our planetary system. 



Wheatstone's experiments have been generally regarded as proving 

 that the velocity of electricity is greater than that of light. But the out- 

 break of the solar spot recorded by Sir John Herschel, and the simulta- 

 neous agitation of the magnetic needles at Kew and elsewhere, render it 

 probable that electrical action is sometimes, if not always, transmitted 

 with precisely the same velocity as light. May it not be that the induc- 

 tion between the successive coils of a wire, however Avidely they may be 

 separated, produces a spark before the electric current has traversed the 

 whole extent of the wire ? Or, if the wire were transparent, is there any 

 reason for supposing that it would transmit a wave of light less rapidly 

 than one of electricity ? 



The analogies to which attention has been called by numerous ob- 

 servers, between phenomena which are dependent upon various forms of 

 force, may be supplemented by relations, no less curious and interesting, 

 of light to cosmical gravitation, some of which are shown in the follow- 

 ing equations. They appear to open a new field for inquiry, in which 

 analysts may, perhaps, find profitable employment. 



Let the sun and planets be denoted by the following subscript figures. 

 Oij ^ ■>'■> 9 -i'l ©4; '^5; inner asteroidg; mean asteroid,; superior asteroidf,; 



2/9) h 10) ¥11? Wl2' 



Let h be the modulus of solar light, on the hypothesis that the luminif- 

 erous aether is an indefinitely elastic, material medium, and that, therefore, 



h = — , u denoting the velocity of light. 

 2?i 



y = velocity, and T = time of theoretical planetary revolution at the 

 surface of the sun, or of a planet. 



i),i = velocity, and tn = time, of axial rotation of n 



r = radius 



m = mass 



d = mean distance from sun 



T = centre of gyration = i/f 



* See also Henshall on 6 of ^ , 9 > and IJ. with same face of sun. Cjsmos. xvii., Nov. 

 1860. p. 573. 



