188 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



ASTRONOMY. 



VELOCITY.— II. 



EDGAR L. LARKIN. 



In this Review for April we stated that a mass falling an infinite distance 

 on a straight line, not meeting resistance, will strike the Sun with a velocity of 

 382.95 miles per second. It is almost impossible for a body to make a straight 

 line flight. The only instance is when a mass approaches on that tangent to. the 

 solar orbit on which the Sun is moving at moment of collision. The Sun trav 

 erses a path which analogy teaches to be a curve, hence moves in direction tang- 

 ent to orbit. Construct a straight line from A to B, bisect it, place the Sun's 

 centre at bisection, let it move towards B, and the line will be tangent. Let 

 point of tangency always coincide with the center of the Sun — then will the 

 points A and B and the tangent shift. Curvature is slight, arcs scarcely differ! 

 from straight lines for immense distances, thence — as the Sun moves, the tangent 

 changes direction. 



Assume space interspersed with comets, bolides and other masses having 

 velocities in all directions determined by differences of attraction of suns. Mid- 

 way — motion is slow — but none rest. Solar gravity in turn disturbs all bodies 

 distributed in a tubular space whose diameter is twenty trillion miles, and length 

 equal to that of the Sun's orbit ; that is : dominates space whose radius is ten 

 trillion miles on assumption that nearest stars have parallaxes of i", and masses 

 each equal to the Sun's. 



If the Sun and a stone be moving towards the same point from opposite 

 directions in the same plane, and if at some epoch in the history of the stone's 

 flight, its path becomes tangent to the orbit of the Sun at an instant when the 

 Sun is in such position that the tangent A B coincides with the path of the stone, 

 then collision will ensue, the stone reaching the Sun on a straight line — the only 

 case possible. 



Such combinations are rare, hence cosmical masses seldom make direct 

 impact on the Sun, few reaching it with highest speed ; that generated by fall from 

 infinite distance. To find maximum velocity of impact we made G = square 

 root of product of twice the Sun's gravity on surface multiplied by its radius, 

 finding G to equal 2,022,008 feet per second. This velocity is that derived from 

 fall from infi7iite distance. Yrom finite, — ■V=GXby square root of quotient found 

 by dividing twice the distance less i, by twice the distance. These formulas we 

 find in standard astronomical works, and by using them in computation to ex- 

 tended decimals, it was learned that if a body begin to fall from 1,000,000 or 

 2o,ooo,ooor, the difference of velocities of impact will be i foot per second, thus: 



