32 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



of heat, the highest being 80,000,000° and the least 40,000,000° ! What effect 

 will such outbursts of thermal energy have on the earth? Will the heat vaporize 

 the oceans, parch the land, and consume all organisms? Let us see. First, we 

 must find the relations between velocity, heat and mass. Take any mass at 

 random, say 52 pounds, and give it any velocity, say 892 feet per second, how 

 intense will be the heat evolved when its motion ends? By analysis, i pound 

 moving 223 feet per second has a motion sufficient to generate heat enough to 

 increase the temperature of i pound of matter of the density of water 1°, hence 

 if it moves 4 times as fast, or 892 feet, it has motion able to develop heat 16 

 times more intense, or 16°, because the square of 4 is 16 times greater than the 

 square of i, the ratios of their velocities. 



If a mass weighing i pound, moving 892 feet per second, generates on im- 

 pact 16°, fifty-two pounds will evolve fifty-two times that amount, or 832°, but the 

 heat will still have the same intensity. By thermometer the mass will indicate 

 only 16°, — that is, fifty-two pounds moving 892 feet per second can generate 

 heat enough to heat one pound of water 832 degrees, 832 pounds 1°, or fifty-two 

 pounds 16°. Now double the mass, by making it 104 pounds, the velocity re- 

 maining the same, and we double the quantity of heat and will have 1,664°; still 

 the thermometer reads 16 degrees. The 1,664°, being distributed through twice 

 the mass, can have no greater intensity than that conserved from its velocity. 

 Therefore : 



1. Increase of mass does not increase the intensity of heat. If we double 

 velocity instead of mass the heat is quadrupled in intensity, thus : 892 multiplied 

 by 2 equals 1,784, and the square of two is four times greater than the square of 

 one ; and since heat of impact is proportional in intensity to squares of velocities, 

 we have four times the heat energy, or 3,328° degrees in amount, and four times 

 the intensity or 64°. This is because four times the heat raises the temperature 

 of fifty-two pounds four times 16°, or 64°, the3,328° degrees being able to warm 

 3,328 pounds 1°, one pound 3,328°, or fifty-two pounds 64°. Whence: 



2. Heat depends for intensity on velocity, and not on mass. Let one 

 pound of matter strike the sun, and whether it fall from an infinite distance or 

 from the distance of any planet its motion will develop on collision, in round 

 numbers, 80,000,000°; let a mass of two pounds impinge, and double the 

 amount of heat will appear, but its intensity will be the same, since the final ve- 

 locity cannot be more than 380.0962, nor less than 379.3943 miles per second. 

 Thence : 



3. A comet of great mass colliding with the sun will produce no greater 

 intensity of heat on the sun or earth than one of small mass. Velocities of 

 impact mentioned are those of interstellar masses falling on the sun with unim- 

 peded motion on straight lines. Any comet that can make impact must move 

 around the sun many times before it can colhde, its perihelion at each circuit 

 approaching, until finally it is so far retarded by gases in the vicinity of the sun 

 that its orbit comes to almost coincide with the solar surface. Then, if the nucleus 

 is solid, it will ricochet like a cannon-ball, and surrender portions of its heat at 



