The Corpuscular Theories of Gravitation
Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original edition for your reading pleasure.It is also searchable and contains hyper-links to chapters.
***
An excerpt from the beginning:
AMONG the problems which Nature presents, there is none more fascinating and none more baffling than that which relates to the mechanism of gravitational attraction. Natural Philosophy deals with many recondite subjects ; but here we have an agency whose action is the common experience of everyday life. There is nothing obscure in the phenomenon itself; no special isolation, analysis or experimental skill is needed to exhibit its working. It is a force which determines nearly every act of our life.
Yet in contrast with this wealth of experience, we find that as to the ultimate nature of the mechanism which produces these actions, nothing certain is known. Many hypotheses have been put forward, some almost metaphysical in their subtlety, others thoroughly scientific in their industrious and cautious development. Yet none have brought full conviction or offered any of that substantial justification which science demands in the hypotheses that are put before her.
There is another general feature of this question, worthy of notice. Although we fail (or only partially succeed) when we attempt the construction of a process for gravitation, yet the quantitative laws which accompany that process are known with great accuracy. On the mathematical side, gravity is no insoluble riddle. We have, on the one hand, astronomical observations, and thus a continual supply of exact data which confirm the famous inductions of Kepler, and so the laws of gravitational action ; while on the other, the extensive range of pendulum experiments, torsion balance experiments, common balance experiments, give a constant verification of these laws as regards small bodies near the surface of this earth. In the hands of modern experimenters, such as Bessel, Boys, and Poynting, these investigations have been carried to an extraordinarily high degree of accuracy ; probably higher than that of any other physical measurement. For example, determinations of gravity by the pendulum have an accuracy of i part in 500,000 ; the experiments of Boys with the torsion balance (the refined form of the Cavendish experiment) have an accuracy of i in 10,000. In Poynting's experiments upon the value of the mean density of the earth, the form of common balance used was so delicate that an increase in the weight of 1 part in 100 million, could be detected. The spring gravimeter of Professor Threlfall measures variations of "g" with a precision of 1 in 500,000 ; while to the same degree of accuracy Bessel showed that attraction is independent of the nature of the attracting bodies. So in all the range of experiments, by which the laws and characteristics of gravitational attraction have been elucidated, a very high degree of accuracy has been attained; and no natural truths are more firmly and broadly based.
Again, a very full mathematical theory of attraction has been worked out on the basis of the Newtonian laws; and in the motion of the tides, the attraction of hill ranges, the variation of gravity over the earth's surface, etc., this theory receives full confirmation. Yet against this plenitude and accuracy of observation and inference, there is very little to be set when a mechanism of the action is demanded. Even the group of corpuscular theories of which I am to speak to-night, though by far the most plausible approach to an explanation, still leave in the mind an impression of unreality hard to combat. Nevertheless it is interesting to trace the attempts at a solution of the ultimate nature of gravitation, and to exhibit the present state of opinion upon the problem.
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***
An excerpt from the beginning:
AMONG the problems which Nature presents, there is none more fascinating and none more baffling than that which relates to the mechanism of gravitational attraction. Natural Philosophy deals with many recondite subjects ; but here we have an agency whose action is the common experience of everyday life. There is nothing obscure in the phenomenon itself; no special isolation, analysis or experimental skill is needed to exhibit its working. It is a force which determines nearly every act of our life.
Yet in contrast with this wealth of experience, we find that as to the ultimate nature of the mechanism which produces these actions, nothing certain is known. Many hypotheses have been put forward, some almost metaphysical in their subtlety, others thoroughly scientific in their industrious and cautious development. Yet none have brought full conviction or offered any of that substantial justification which science demands in the hypotheses that are put before her.
There is another general feature of this question, worthy of notice. Although we fail (or only partially succeed) when we attempt the construction of a process for gravitation, yet the quantitative laws which accompany that process are known with great accuracy. On the mathematical side, gravity is no insoluble riddle. We have, on the one hand, astronomical observations, and thus a continual supply of exact data which confirm the famous inductions of Kepler, and so the laws of gravitational action ; while on the other, the extensive range of pendulum experiments, torsion balance experiments, common balance experiments, give a constant verification of these laws as regards small bodies near the surface of this earth. In the hands of modern experimenters, such as Bessel, Boys, and Poynting, these investigations have been carried to an extraordinarily high degree of accuracy ; probably higher than that of any other physical measurement. For example, determinations of gravity by the pendulum have an accuracy of i part in 500,000 ; the experiments of Boys with the torsion balance (the refined form of the Cavendish experiment) have an accuracy of i in 10,000. In Poynting's experiments upon the value of the mean density of the earth, the form of common balance used was so delicate that an increase in the weight of 1 part in 100 million, could be detected. The spring gravimeter of Professor Threlfall measures variations of "g" with a precision of 1 in 500,000 ; while to the same degree of accuracy Bessel showed that attraction is independent of the nature of the attracting bodies. So in all the range of experiments, by which the laws and characteristics of gravitational attraction have been elucidated, a very high degree of accuracy has been attained; and no natural truths are more firmly and broadly based.
Again, a very full mathematical theory of attraction has been worked out on the basis of the Newtonian laws; and in the motion of the tides, the attraction of hill ranges, the variation of gravity over the earth's surface, etc., this theory receives full confirmation. Yet against this plenitude and accuracy of observation and inference, there is very little to be set when a mechanism of the action is demanded. Even the group of corpuscular theories of which I am to speak to-night, though by far the most plausible approach to an explanation, still leave in the mind an impression of unreality hard to combat. Nevertheless it is interesting to trace the attempts at a solution of the ultimate nature of gravitation, and to exhibit the present state of opinion upon the problem.
The Corpuscular Theories of Gravitation
Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original edition for your reading pleasure.It is also searchable and contains hyper-links to chapters.
***
An excerpt from the beginning:
AMONG the problems which Nature presents, there is none more fascinating and none more baffling than that which relates to the mechanism of gravitational attraction. Natural Philosophy deals with many recondite subjects ; but here we have an agency whose action is the common experience of everyday life. There is nothing obscure in the phenomenon itself; no special isolation, analysis or experimental skill is needed to exhibit its working. It is a force which determines nearly every act of our life.
Yet in contrast with this wealth of experience, we find that as to the ultimate nature of the mechanism which produces these actions, nothing certain is known. Many hypotheses have been put forward, some almost metaphysical in their subtlety, others thoroughly scientific in their industrious and cautious development. Yet none have brought full conviction or offered any of that substantial justification which science demands in the hypotheses that are put before her.
There is another general feature of this question, worthy of notice. Although we fail (or only partially succeed) when we attempt the construction of a process for gravitation, yet the quantitative laws which accompany that process are known with great accuracy. On the mathematical side, gravity is no insoluble riddle. We have, on the one hand, astronomical observations, and thus a continual supply of exact data which confirm the famous inductions of Kepler, and so the laws of gravitational action ; while on the other, the extensive range of pendulum experiments, torsion balance experiments, common balance experiments, give a constant verification of these laws as regards small bodies near the surface of this earth. In the hands of modern experimenters, such as Bessel, Boys, and Poynting, these investigations have been carried to an extraordinarily high degree of accuracy ; probably higher than that of any other physical measurement. For example, determinations of gravity by the pendulum have an accuracy of i part in 500,000 ; the experiments of Boys with the torsion balance (the refined form of the Cavendish experiment) have an accuracy of i in 10,000. In Poynting's experiments upon the value of the mean density of the earth, the form of common balance used was so delicate that an increase in the weight of 1 part in 100 million, could be detected. The spring gravimeter of Professor Threlfall measures variations of "g" with a precision of 1 in 500,000 ; while to the same degree of accuracy Bessel showed that attraction is independent of the nature of the attracting bodies. So in all the range of experiments, by which the laws and characteristics of gravitational attraction have been elucidated, a very high degree of accuracy has been attained; and no natural truths are more firmly and broadly based.
Again, a very full mathematical theory of attraction has been worked out on the basis of the Newtonian laws; and in the motion of the tides, the attraction of hill ranges, the variation of gravity over the earth's surface, etc., this theory receives full confirmation. Yet against this plenitude and accuracy of observation and inference, there is very little to be set when a mechanism of the action is demanded. Even the group of corpuscular theories of which I am to speak to-night, though by far the most plausible approach to an explanation, still leave in the mind an impression of unreality hard to combat. Nevertheless it is interesting to trace the attempts at a solution of the ultimate nature of gravitation, and to exhibit the present state of opinion upon the problem.
***
An excerpt from the beginning:
AMONG the problems which Nature presents, there is none more fascinating and none more baffling than that which relates to the mechanism of gravitational attraction. Natural Philosophy deals with many recondite subjects ; but here we have an agency whose action is the common experience of everyday life. There is nothing obscure in the phenomenon itself; no special isolation, analysis or experimental skill is needed to exhibit its working. It is a force which determines nearly every act of our life.
Yet in contrast with this wealth of experience, we find that as to the ultimate nature of the mechanism which produces these actions, nothing certain is known. Many hypotheses have been put forward, some almost metaphysical in their subtlety, others thoroughly scientific in their industrious and cautious development. Yet none have brought full conviction or offered any of that substantial justification which science demands in the hypotheses that are put before her.
There is another general feature of this question, worthy of notice. Although we fail (or only partially succeed) when we attempt the construction of a process for gravitation, yet the quantitative laws which accompany that process are known with great accuracy. On the mathematical side, gravity is no insoluble riddle. We have, on the one hand, astronomical observations, and thus a continual supply of exact data which confirm the famous inductions of Kepler, and so the laws of gravitational action ; while on the other, the extensive range of pendulum experiments, torsion balance experiments, common balance experiments, give a constant verification of these laws as regards small bodies near the surface of this earth. In the hands of modern experimenters, such as Bessel, Boys, and Poynting, these investigations have been carried to an extraordinarily high degree of accuracy ; probably higher than that of any other physical measurement. For example, determinations of gravity by the pendulum have an accuracy of i part in 500,000 ; the experiments of Boys with the torsion balance (the refined form of the Cavendish experiment) have an accuracy of i in 10,000. In Poynting's experiments upon the value of the mean density of the earth, the form of common balance used was so delicate that an increase in the weight of 1 part in 100 million, could be detected. The spring gravimeter of Professor Threlfall measures variations of "g" with a precision of 1 in 500,000 ; while to the same degree of accuracy Bessel showed that attraction is independent of the nature of the attracting bodies. So in all the range of experiments, by which the laws and characteristics of gravitational attraction have been elucidated, a very high degree of accuracy has been attained; and no natural truths are more firmly and broadly based.
Again, a very full mathematical theory of attraction has been worked out on the basis of the Newtonian laws; and in the motion of the tides, the attraction of hill ranges, the variation of gravity over the earth's surface, etc., this theory receives full confirmation. Yet against this plenitude and accuracy of observation and inference, there is very little to be set when a mechanism of the action is demanded. Even the group of corpuscular theories of which I am to speak to-night, though by far the most plausible approach to an explanation, still leave in the mind an impression of unreality hard to combat. Nevertheless it is interesting to trace the attempts at a solution of the ultimate nature of gravitation, and to exhibit the present state of opinion upon the problem.
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The Corpuscular Theories of Gravitation
The Corpuscular Theories of Gravitation
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940013244023 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Leila's Books |
| Publication date: | 10/05/2011 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 114 KB |
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