Outlines of Astronomy

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Blanchard & Lea, 1861 - Astronomy - 557 pages

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Page 211 - ... of those great deposits of dynamical efficiency which are laid up for human use in our coal strata. By them the waters of the sea are made to circulate in vapour through the air, and irrigate the land, producing springs and rivers.
Page 236 - that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle, with a force whose direction is that of the line joining the two, and whose magnitude is directly as the product of their masses, and inversely as the square of their distances from each other.
Page 211 - The sun's rays are the ultimate source of almost every motion which takes place on the surface of the earth. By its heat are produced all winds, and those disturbances in the electric equilibrium of the atmosphere which give rise to the phenomena of lightning, and probably also to terrestrial action and the aurora.
Page 64 - Ocean, the first thing which strikes us is, that, the north-east and south-east monsoons, which are found the one on the north and the other on...
Page 234 - That it is our own immediate consciousness of effort when we exert force to put matter in motion, or to oppose and neutralize force, which gives us this internal conviction of power and causation so far as it refers to the material world, and compels us to believe that whenever we see material objects put in motion from a state of rest, or deflected from their rectilinear paths and changed in their velocities if already in motion, it is in consequence of such an effort somehow exerted, though not...
Page 204 - Ingens macula in sole conspiciebatur, cujus diam eter = ^o diam. solis. uniformly bright. Its ground is finely mottled with an appearance of minute, dark dots, or pores, which, when attentively watched, are found to be in a constant state of change. There is nothing which represents so faithfully this appearance as the slow subsidence of some flocculent chemical precipitates in a transparent fluid, when viewed perpendicularly from above...
Page 514 - It is not easy for language to convey a full impression of the beauty and sublimity of the spectacle which this nebula offers, as it enters the field of view of a telescope fixed in Right Ascension, by the diurnal motion, ushered in as it is by so glorious and innumerable a procession of stars, to which it forms a sort of climax," and in a part of the heavens otherwise full of interest.
Page 259 - ... is no longer mere analogy which strikes us, no longer a general resemblance among them, as individuals independent of each other, and circulating about the sun, each according to its own peculiar nature, and connected with it by its own peculiar tie. The resemblance is now perceived to be a true family likeness ; they are bound up in one chain — interwoven in one web of mutual relation and harmonious agreement, subjected to one pervading influence which extends from the centre to the farthest...
Page 174 - Now it is a remarkable fact, ascertained by the late researches of Col. Yyse, that of the nine pyramids still existing at Gizeh, six (including all the largest) have the narrow passages by which alone- they can be entered, (all which open out on the northern faces of their respective pyramids) inclined to the horizon downwards at angles as follows. 1st, or Pyramid of Cheops 26° 41...
Page 487 - This earth? reciprocal, if land be there, Fields and inhabitants: her spots thou seest As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce Fruits in her soften'd soil, for some to eat Allotted there; and other suns perhaps, With their attendant moons, thou wilt descry, Communicating male and female light; Which two great sexes animate the world, Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live...

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