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398 
Chase. ] [April &. 
FURTHER APPROXIMATIONS TO THE SUN’S DISTANCE. 
By Puiny EarLe CHASE. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, April 5th, 1872.) 
If it be true, as is commonly and very plausibly supposed, that molecu- 
lar and cosmical laws have many significant analogies which are yet un- 
discovered, it may be well to seek for such analogies wherever we may 
reasonably hope to find them. 
The height of oscillation which I have assumed as the measure of the 
igneous energy of combustibles, is less, and the resulting estimate of 
solar mass and distance is greater, if the. combustible is dense, composite, 
or of small specific heat, than if it is rare, simple, or of great specific 
heat. It seems likely that even hydrogen, the most volatile of all known 
substances, may have undergone some condensation and loss of specific 
heat, and that, therefore, my first estimates by flame analysis * were all 
slightly in excess. This opinion is the more probable, from the fact that 
the mean of the most recent astronomical estimates of solar distance, is 
nearly one per cent. less than the mean of the flame estimates. 
In searching for some clue to the coéfficient of condensation in hydrogen, 
if we accept the hypothesis that the luminiferous ether is a perfectly 
elastic material medium, we may, perhaps, be able to detect some im- 
portant relations between the velocity of luminous or thermal undulations, 
and the velocity of oscillations which are directly traceable to gravitating 
action. In the primary radiation and subsequent double concentration 
of exploding hydrogen, there is not only a joint attraction of the gaseous 
particles for each other and of the whole for the earth, but there is also 
a generation of luminous vibrations, with a velocity such as would be 
2 
produced by a gravitating force g = . . Equivalent velocities may be 
generated by masses of different magnitudes, provided the motion is 
orbital with radii varying as the masses, or the fall is virtually continued 
to the centre from heights equivalent to twice those proportionate radii. 
With these preliminary considerations I invite attention to the following: 
coincidences : 
1. At the centre of oscillation of the extreme excursion of exploding 
1,0 before its fall towards the centre of condensation, (% of 1009.877 
miles from the commencement of the fall, or 4 1009.877—336.626 miles. 
above the earth’s surface, ) the velocity imparted by terrestrial gravity in one 
32.0894377 >< 31558150 eee 336.626) 3 : ; 
sa : a o 30 28 
( 5280 902.818) = 184130 mites ) 
would be closely coincident with the velocity of light. If the coincidence 
Qn 
is exact, 7 (the Sun’s distance) is 497.827 184,130—91, 665,370 miles. 
year 
J , : oe ays 2gt? 7? 
The value of h corresponding to this distance gf = 
which is 1.0215 times the experimental 7 (561.043 m). 
* Ante, p.. 395. 
== 573.099 miles,. 
